Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has said it will cooperate with Biden until the end of his term as US president, outlining the main issues the countries are trying to resolve: hostage negotiations and a ceasefire in Gaza.
Reuters reports this.
“We do not foresee any negative consequences of the elections for the mediation process itself. “We believe we are dealing with institutions, and in a country like the United States, institutions are investing in finding a solution to this crisis,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said at a news conference.
A hostage negotiations summit was held in Doha, the capital of Qatar, attended by Mossad Director David Barnea, CIA Director William Burns, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani. In the negotiations, proposals from Egypt, the United States and Qatar were considered. The discussions lasted all night and ended with positive signs that progress was being made in developing a unified plan for the release of the hostages. According to sources, it is possible that within a week the main framework of the agreement will be agreed upon.
As you know, during the attack on Israel, Hamas terrorists took 251 people hostage. Of them, 105 were released in November 2023 as part of an agreement between the terrorist group and Israel. Eight more were freed by the Israeli army during operations in the Gaza Strip, the fate of the rest is unknown, but 66 people are assumed to be alive.
The next summit is expected to be attended by the intelligence chiefs of Israel, the United States, Qatar and Egypt. It is possible that to speed up the negotiation process it will be possible to interact with Hamas representatives.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi proposed a 48-hour ceasefire to facilitate the release of four hostages in exchange for some Palestinian prisoners. Hamas welcomed the proposal but expressed doubts about Israeli guarantees, insisting that any agreement must include a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Recall that Cursor wrote that hearings in the Knesset committee on a bill on the deportation of relatives of terrorists turned into a shouting match between right-wing lawmakers and deputy Ofer Kassif after Kassif, the only Jewish member of Hadash Ta’al. party, where the majority are Arabs, came into conflict with the mother of an IDF reservist.
