The spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, dismissed media reports on Qatar’s withdrawal from mediation from Gaza’s ceasefire talks on Saturday, November 9. Al-Ansari clarified that his country notified the concerned parties during the last attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement, that it would suspend its efforts to mediate between the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round.
The Qatari spokesperson added that Qatar will resume mediation efforts when the concerned parties show their “willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians caused by catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Strip.”
Al Ansari also denied media reports, which claimed that Qatar had asked the Hamas office in Doha to leave the country, asserting that the main goal for the office to be based in Qatar is maintaining a channel of communication between the concerned parties. The Qatari official pointed out that this channel has contributed to achieving a temporary ceasefire in previous stages, and maintaining calm in the besieged enclave in November of last year, during which an exchange of some captives and Palestinian prisoners took place.
The New Arab reported on Saturday that it was told by three officials from Hamas that Qatar did not ask the movement’s office to leave the country. The officials labeled reports claiming the contrary as “fabricated news [that] aims to confuse and cover up the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation.”
The dismissal of the reports by Qatari and Hamas officials came after western media outlets released reports claiming that Biden’s administration asked the Gulf country to expel Hamas’s leaders from its territories, a couple of weeks after the movement rejected a temporary ceasefire proposal.
Apart from the dismissed claims on Qatar’s intentions to expel Hamas’s office, the suspension of its mediating role is seen by analysts as a compliance to the US policy in the region as the Biden’s administration is counting its last days.
Since the beginning of Israeli aggression on Gaza, ceasefire talks and mediation efforts have been conducted under the US supervision, which has always exerted pressure on Hamas directly and indirectly to accept unfair compromises for a ceasefire and captives-for-prisoners swap deal to be achieved.
Israel has not achieved any of its goals from the aggression, above all the return of captives, while it has endured significant military and economic losses in its prolonged multi-front war across the region. However, the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is unwilling to admit the defeat. Therefore, the US decided to indirectly pressure Hamas again, but this time through the suspension of Qatar’s mediation.
