Qatar’s chief negotiator expressed frustration over the stalled Gaza truce talks in a latest interview, as a month of renewed Israeli strikes and failed negotiations left efforts to succeed in a deal at a standstill.
“We’re definitely frustrated by the slowness, sometimes, of the process in the negotiation. This is an urgent matter. There are lives at stake here if this military operation continues day by day,” Mohammed al-Khulaifi informed the Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday.
Qatar, with the United States and Egypt, brokered a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that got here into drive on Jan. 19 and largely halted over a yr of struggle triggered by the Palestinian resistance group’s Oct. 7, 2023, incursion of Israel.
The preliminary part of the truce resulted in early March, with the 2 sides unable to agree on the subsequent steps.
Hamas has insisted that negotiations be held for a second part of the truce, resulting in a everlasting finish to the struggle, as outlined within the January framework.
Israel, which had referred to as for an extension to the opening part, resumed air and floor assaults throughout the Gaza Strip on March 18 after earlier halting the entry of support.
Late Thursday, Hamas signaled the group wouldn’t settle for Israel’s latest proposal for a 45-day cease-fire. Israel had needed the discharge of 10 residing hostages held by the Palestinian group, the group mentioned.
‘Noise’
“We’ve been working continuously in the last days to try to bring the parties together and revive the agreement that has been endorsed by the two sides,” the Qatari minister of state mentioned.
“And we will remain committed to this, in spite of the difficulties,” he added.
During the lengthy mediation course of, Qatar has been the goal of direct criticism from Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At least two of Netanyahu’s aides are suspected of receiving funds from the Qatari authorities to advertise Doha’s pursuits in Israel, prompting an Israeli legal probe. Qatar has dismissed the assaults as a “smear campaign.”
“We’ve been receiving those types of criticism and negative comments since the early times of our involvement,” al-Khulaifi mentioned.
“Critiques without any context, such as the ones that we keep hearing from Netanyahu himself, are often just noise,” he added.
Al-Khulaifi rejected latest remarks from Netanyahu to the U.S.-based evangelical Christian channel Daystar that Qatar had promoted “anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism” on U.S. school campuses.
‘De-escalation’
“His claims about Qatar’s educational partnerships have been repeatedly disproven. Everything we do is transparent,” the Qatari official added.
Qatar, with al-Khulaifi as its lead negotiator, has emerged as a facilitator within the battle within the Democratic Republic of Congo that has flared in latest months, with the armed M23 group making a sequence of speedy positive aspects within the nation’s resource-rich east.
In early March, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, who’s accused of backing the M23, held shock conferences in Doha and later expressed their assist for a cease-fire.
“This meeting happened to really find a pathway towards de-escalation and more of an agreement on an implementation mechanism,” al-Khulaifi mentioned.
“We’ve managed to create this flexible line of communication between the two sides and we’re hoping there are more successes than you can hear within the next days,” the Qatari minister added.
Al-Khulaifi mentioned following the conferences between the leaders that Qatar had satisfied the M23, Rwanda and the DRC to “de-escalate” close to the strategic mining hub of Walikale.
This allowed “a process of withdrawing from Walikale to the eastern sides, to Goma. That movement by itself was, in our view, a positive development,” he added, referring to the M23-held capital of DR Congo’s North Kivu Province.
Al-Khulaifi mentioned the United States had been “a reliable partner” in DR Congo and he hoped to debate the battle with the U.S. envoy for Africa, Massad Boulos, in Washington within the coming days.
In the United States, al-Khulaifi mentioned he would additionally increase the problem of ongoing sanctions on Syria following the ousting of Bashar Assad.
Along with Qatari funding for gasoline provides to Syria, Qatar is discussing with regional companions a rise in public sector salaries within the nation.
“We’re discussing it very closely with our US colleagues to see how can we move on within this project,” al-Khulaifi mentioned.
Source: www.dailysabah.com