Qatar Playing Significant Role Securing Gaza Ceasefire: Australia Foreign Minister

Prime Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani shakes hands with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong during a meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 20, 2024. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Australia’s capital on Aug. 20.

The meeting included discussions on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Qatar has been serving as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas as negotiations to release the hostages continue.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has indicated that Israel is on board with a proposal to bridge differences holding up a ceasefire and called on Hamas to do the same. He is in Israel, Egypt, and Qatar for intensive diplomatic discussions in an attempt to conclude an agreement for a ceasefire and hostage release.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the meeting involved talks on multiple international and regional issues, particularly developments in the Gaza strip.

“The meeting discussed bilateral cooperation relations and ways to support and develop them in the fields of economy, trade exchange, clean energy and technology,” Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Wong told the Qatari prime minister of Australia’s support for the ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza strip.

“She also commended the State of Qatar’s efforts in repatriating Australian citizens stranded during the COVID-19 Pandemic via Qatar Airways, in addition to its role in evacuating Australians from Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip,” Qatar said.

Wong said a ceasefire would facilitate access of humanitarian aid for Gaza residents as well as the return of hostages.

“All parties must come to the table and agree this deal endorsed by the U.N. Security Council,” she said following the meeting.

Qatar and Australia agreed more must be done to deal with the urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering there is unacceptable,” she said.

Wong explained Australia and Qatar were working together to promote stability, peace, and prosperity.

“Qatar is an important partner and we cooperate on regional security, trade and investment, and in the multilateral system,” she said.

Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 civilians. Since then, more than 40,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza, according to its health ministry, run by Hamas.

Hamas Should Be Releasing Hostages: Birmingham

Earlier on Aug. 20, Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham said the ball is “very clearly in Hamas’ court” with regards to a ceasefire deal.

“We’ve got a situation now where if Hamas want to see the terrible, tragic toll come to an end, then they should agree to the ceasefire,” he said on Sky News.

“If they want to see the opportunity for humanitarian workers to step in and stop a polio outbreak, that’s occurring, then they should agree to the ceasefire.”

Birmingham added Hamas should be releasing hostages that they’ve held for some 10 months now.

“And of course, the tragedy of this situation is obviously the huge humanitarian toll, the terrible, tragic loss of life that has occurred, but also the fact that even in this ceasefire, Hamas is only being offered or being asked to agree to terms that would see some hostages released and some progress made,” he said.

“When in reality, Hamas should be having an unconditional release of hostages and surrendering of its terrorist infrastructure and capabilities.”

Qatar PM’s Advisor Hopeful On Mediation Process

Meanwhile, advisor to the Qatari prime minister’s, Majed Al-Ansari, said Qatar remained “hopeful and certainly committed to the mediation process.”

Meetings were held last weekend in Doha in the hopes of bridging the remaining gaps between the two sides.  Technical meetings took place in Cairo and they were hoping to meet again by the end of the week.

Discussing how Qatar achieves a resolution without Hamas representatives in the room, he noted “this is not our first rodeo.”

“Qatar has been meeting for various mediations in the past starting with the Evian agreements in 1962, so we have the capacity to deal with different contexts when it comes to these kind of mediations,” he told the ABC. 

“In the past when dealing between Hamas and Israel, we have mediated in the same manner in various ways where Hamas was not in the room and we were able to communicate between both sides.

“It’s very rare that we see direct negotiations between Hamas and Israel, it almost never has happened before in the history of mediation between both sides.”