Qatar has withdrawn its mediation between Israel and Palestinian Hamas after months of unsuccessful efforts to end the war in the Gaza Strip, a diplomatic source said on Saturday. He also indicated that the Hamas political office in Doha “no longer has any reason to exist”, added the same source, without explicitly saying whether the office would be closed.
“The Hamas political office (in Doha) no longer has its reason for being”
“The Qataris have informed the Israelis and Hamas that as long as both sides refuse to negotiate a deal in good faith, they cannot continue to play the role of mediator,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “As a result, the Hamas political office (in Doha) no longer has its raison d'être.” With the United States and Egypt, Qatar had mediated between the two belligerents since a single truce in the conflict in November 2023 which lasted a week and allowed the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for prisoners. Palestinians detained by Israel.
Since then, numerous negotiating sessions have taken place without any results. Hamas and Israel accuse each other of blocking any agreement, each camp refusing the other's conditions for a ceasefire in the war triggered on October 7, 2023 by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel. According to the diplomatic source, Qatar has already “notified both parties, Israel and Hamas as well as the American administration” of its decision. “The Qataris have indicated to the American administration that they would be ready to engage again in mediation when both parties (…) demonstrate a sincere desire to return to the negotiating table.”
The rich gas emirate of Qatar, an ally of the United States, has housed the political office of Hamas for more than ten years and it is also in Qatar that the former leader of the Palestinian movement Ismaïl Haniyeh, killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran attributed to Israel. The Hamas office in Qatar was “opened in 2012 in coordination with the American government, following its request to have a channel of communication” with the movement, a Qatari official explained at the start of the war.
This office “was used for coordinated mediations with several American administrations to stabilize the situation in Gaza and Israel,” he added.
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