Gaza ceasefire talks at impasse, Qatar PM says
Qatar’s PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum that has kicked off in Doha today.
He says Qatar has not stopped negotiating between Israel and Hamas, despite challenges, and will continue to do so.
“Unfortunately things didn’t move in the right direction and right now we are on a status of almost a stalemate. Of course, what happened with Rafah has set us backward,” he said, before adding that if the war continues, Hamas’s office in Doha will remain open.
He adds that there should be one Palestinian government in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip based on a Palestinian consensus.
‘No commonality’ in ceasefire talks: Qatar’s PM
Qatar’s PM has concluded his speech at Qatar’s Economic Forum. Here is what he said regarding the ceasefire talks which Qatar is mediating.
“When there are two parties who want to agree on something, you need to agree on the baseline first of all. I believe that what we are seeing is a fundamental difference between the two.
“There is one party who wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages. There is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war, and as long as there is no commonality between those two things, it won’t get us to a result,” he said.
We do not want to be exploited as a mediator, we’ve made it clear to everyone that our role is limited to mediation: Prime Minister @MBA_AlThani_
We will continue to work and press to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza: Prime Minister #QatarEconomicForum pic.twitter.com/cIzh2zum7d
— Osama Bin Javaid (@osamabinjavaid) May 14, 2024
US officials say Israel amassed enough troops in Rafah to launch full-scale invasion
Two senior Biden administration officials say the Israeli military has gathered enough troops at the edge of Rafah city to launch a full-scale invasion in the coming days.
However, US officials are unsure if the Israeli military will proceed with a ground invasion after Biden warned that he would withhold arms shipments to Israel if they were to take that step, CNN reports.
The unnamed officials quoted by CNN added that Israel has “not come anywhere close” to making adequate preparations for evacuating Rafah’s population before any invasion, such as “building infrastructure related to food, hygiene and shelter”.
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