Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, disclosed on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, that negotiations between Israel and Hamas to secure a truce in Gaza and a release of hostages have stalled.
Speaking at news conference alongside Romanian counterpart, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, he noted that the discussions are at a “delicate phase,” adding, “We are trying as much as possible to address this stumbling block.”
Qatar has been working to try to mediate a deal throughout the six months of fighting in Gaza. However, there is still no sign of any breakthrough in the negotiations, as Israel and Hamas each refuse to move on conditions the other side declares unacceptable.
As the longwinded talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, continue, the Israeli military has continued deadly operations inside the enclave, which remains blockaded.
Meanwhile, the armed Hamas group continues to hold more than 100 captives taken from Israel during its raid across the enclave’s northern border on October 7, which killed more than 1,100.
The Qatari Prime Minister said that negotiators are trying to “move forward and put an end to the suffering that the people in Gaza are experiencing and return the hostages”.
He condemned what he described as the policy of “collective punishment” being followed by Israel in Gaza, as well as the occupied West Bank.
The Qatari premier said Doha had “warned from the beginning of this war against the expansion of the circle of conflict, and today we see conflicts on different fronts”.
“We constantly call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and stop this war,” he added, saying people of Gaza faced “siege and starvation” with humanitarian aid being used as a “tool for political blackmail”.
The mediators had hoped to secure a ceasefire before the start of Ramadan – which ended last week – but progress repeatedly faltered without any cessation of hostilities.
Separately, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on Wednesday for the world to focus its attention on the hostages, and for Hamas to immediately release the hostages along with accepting the cease-fire proposal.
“The only reason the conflict continues in Gaza is because they won’t take that deal,” Cameron said during a visit to Israel.
He added, “We need the hostages out. We need the aid in.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Meets Hamas Leader In Doha
Also on Wednesday, Turkish diplomatic sources divulged that Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan met Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh during his visit to Qatar.
Fidan was in Qatar to hold talks with his Qatari counterpart.
Fidan and Haniyeh discussed humanitarian aid to Gaza, the captives and efforts to achieve a ceasefire.
The Haniyeh-Fidan meeting came hours after Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to defend the Palestinian cause “even if I am left alone.”
“By killing over 14,000 innocent children in Gaza, Israel has already outdone Nazi leader Adolf Hitler,” Erdoğan told his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) parliamentary meeting in Ankara on Wednesday.
He once again hit out at the “unconditional support from the West” for Israel, which he said was helping Israel “carry out massacres that went down shamefully in human history, both in Gaza and West Bank.”
Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas’s political bureau, is slated to travel to Turkey on Saturday, to hold talks with Erdogan.
Erdogan, who has been one of the staunchest defenders of Hamas and critics of Israel during the war, confirmed he would “host the leader of the Palestinian cause at the weekend.”
The planned meeting comes more than a week after Haniyeh lost seven family members; three children and four grandchildren, in an Israeli air attack on their car in northern Gaza.
