The prime minister of Qatar said on Friday that his country does not “have a war with Israel,” but stressed that the Jewish state must reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Asked about a potential Saudi-US-Israeli deal at a Q&A session following a speech in Singapore, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that Qatar’s position on any such agreement has remained consistent for years.
“We didn’t hear anything officially about any talks on Saudi-Israel, but at the end of the day, Qatar maintains the same position, that foreign policy decisions of each member states of the GCC — it’s based on their own assessment, on their own evaluation,” said Al-Thani, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a body which also includes Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, who established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords.
The prime minister said Qatar believes the best way forward is 2001’s Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative, which offered normalization between Israel and the Arab world if Israel withdrew from the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights and allowed the establishment of a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
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