DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday that momentum had returned to talks aimed at cementing a truce and hostage exchange deal in Gaza following the election of Donald Trump as US president.
“We have sensed, after the election, that the momentum is coming back,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told the Doha Forum for political dialogue.
The Qatari prime minister explained that while there were “some differences” in the approach to an agreement by the outgoing and incoming US administrations, “we didn’t see or recognize any disagreement on the goal itself to end the war.”
The Gulf emirate, along with the United States and Egypt, had been involved in months of unsuccessful negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release after 14 months of war.
But in November, Doha announced it had put its mediation on hold, saying it would resume when Hamas and Israel showed “willingness and seriousness.”
Sheikh Mohammed said there had been “a lot of encouragement from the incoming administration in order to achieve a deal, even before the president comes to the office,” adding this had affected the Qatari decision to get talks “back on track” over the last two weeks.
“We hope to get things done as soon as possible. We hope that the willingness of the parties to engage in a good faith continues,” he said.
The prime minister also brushed off the prospect of Qatar facing greater pressure over the status of its political bureau for Hamas, which the Gulf state has hosted since 2012 with the blessing of the United States.
He called the office a “platform to convene between the different parties,” adding that Qatar was not “expected to enforce solutions” on the Palestinian militants.
On Syria, Qatar’s prime minister said Syrian President Bashar Assad failed to engage with his people and address issues like the return of refugees during a period of calm in the country’s war.
“Assad didn’t seize these opportunities to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people, and we didn’t see any serious movement, whether it’s on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said at the Doha Forum for political dialogue.
Qatar — which gave early support to the opposition after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, leading to the civil war — remains a fierce critic of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.
Sheikh Mohammed said the world had been “surprised” by the speed of a recent rapid advance by Islamist-led militants in Syria and cautioned that the situation might become “more and more dangerous,” threatening a return to a more intense level of civil war.
He added such an outcome would “damage and destroy what’s left, if there is not any sense of urgency to start putting (in place) a political framework for what’s happening over there... in order to find a political solution.”
