Qatar announced on Saturday (9) that it has stopped its role as mediator for a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas due to the parties’ lack of will to reach an agreement.
“The State of Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago, during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would paralyze its mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round,” Majed Al-Ansari, port -Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
The statement detailed Qatar’s withdrawal from mediation efforts, of which the country has been a central part for more than a year. After months of endless negotiations, efforts to reach a ceasefire and an agreement to release hostages remain stalled.
Authorities in Doha also decided to close Hamas’ political office in the Qatari capital, he told CNN a diplomat familiar with the decision.
Doha decided “about a week ago to suspend the office because the parties are not negotiating in good faith,” said the diplomat. “The office will not be operational, so (Hamas) can leave. The office may reopen if negotiations resume.”
Sources from the United States and Qatar told CNN on Friday (8) that Qatar took the decision to expel Hamas following a request from the USA. The diplomatic source said the decision to close the office was taken independently and not due to US pressure.
The closure of the office’s operations could cause Hamas officials to leave Qatar, but they have not been given a deadline or ultimatum, the diplomat said.
When the CNN asked the White House National Security Council for clarification on Saturday, the council declined to comment and referred to what a senior administration official said on Friday.
“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, their leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner,” a senior administration official told CNN on Friday, referring to Hamas.
“Qatar played an invaluable role in helping to broker a hostage deal and was instrumental in securing the release of nearly 200 hostages last year. However, following Hamas’ repeated refusal to release even a small number of hostages, including most recently during meetings in Cairo, its continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable,” the official said.
Qatari spokesman Al-Ansari referred to “inaccurate” reporting in his Saturday statement.
A Hamas official told CNN on Saturday that reports of the group’s departure from Doha were “unfounded” and a “pressure tactic.”
Throughout the war and negotiations to bring the hostages home, U.S. officials asked Qatar to use the threat of expulsion as a bargaining chip in its talks with Hamas.
The final impetus for Qatar to agree to expel Hamas came recently, following the death of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Hamas’s rejection of yet another ceasefire proposal.
The Hamas office could reopen “when both sides demonstrate a sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table with the aim of ending the war,” the diplomatic source said.
In April, Doha took a similar step by temporarily closing the Hamas office. The authorities then left Qatar and went to Türkiye. As negotiations weakened, the Biden administration and Israel asked Doha to bring them back, the diplomat told CNN .
This content was originally published in Qatar announces that it has suspended mediation efforts for the ceasefire in Gaza on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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