The Qatari government has paused its involvement in mediating talks to reach a cease-fire in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war, after ending the latest round of discussions without an agreement.
In a Nov. 9 statement, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Qatar had suspended its involvement in cease-fire discussions but disputed claims that Qatar had outright withdrawn from the peace process.
Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have been working as intermediaries to bring an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip and get terrorist group Hamas to free hostages that it has held there since Oct. 7, 2023.
President Joe Biden announced in May that the various parties had agreed to a phased framework for a permanent cease-fire, whereby Hamas would gradually release about 100 hostages in exchange for increased flows of humanitarian aid to the embattled Gaza Strip. The deal would have eventually concluded with the end of the fighting in Gaza and the release of the last hostages.
Talks on that cease-fire framework stalled by August.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said Qatar informed the various parties on Oct. 31, during the latest attempts to reach an agreement, that it would step back if that round of talks didn’t end with a deal. Al-Ansari said Qatar will be ready to resume its intermediary role “once the necessary seriousness is present to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians due to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”
Al-Ansari also said Qatar remains committed to supporting the Palestinian people “until they achieve all their rights,” including an independent state based on the 1967 borders of the region, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“Qatar will not accept its mediation to be used as a means of blackmail, as we have witnessed since the collapse of the first truce and the women and children prisoner exchange, manipulation—particularly in the backtracking from commitments that were agreed upon through the mediation—and the use of the continuation of negotiations to justify the ongoing war for narrow political purposes,” al-Ansari said in comments to the Qatar News Agency that the foreign ministry reprinted.
Neither al-Ansari nor the Qatari Foreign Ministry elaborated further on which parties they felt were engaging in blackmail or backtracking in their commitments.
The Nov. 9 Qatari Foreign Ministry statement was issued amid reports that the U.S. government had pressured Qatar to shutter a Hamas political office in Doha because it wasn’t engaging in negotiations in good faith.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry called reports concerning the Hamas office in Doha “inaccurate.” The ministry credited the Hamas office in Doha with contributing to past negotiations, including a week-long cease-fire in November 2023 that included the release of about 100 hostages from Gaza.
