Qatari PM: We don’t have war with Israel, our issue is the ‘occupation’

“Any agreement with the Israelis doesn’t represent peace, without peace between them and the Palestinians.”

By World Israel News Staff

Qatar’s prime minister said his country was not at war with Israel, but insisted that the path to peace must involve a resolution with the Palestinians.

“At the end of the day, we don’t have a war with Israel, the Israelis have an occupation over the Palestinians,” Al-Thani added. “So any agreement [of an Arab nation] with the Israelis doesn’t represent peace, the peace [could be] represented only between them and the Palestinians,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said during a speech in Singapore.

Addressing a potential alliance between Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and Israel, Al-Thani remarked, “We didn’t hear anything officially about any talks on Saudi-Israel… Qatar maintains the same position, that foreign policy decisions of each member states of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] is based on their own assessment, on their own evaluation.”

Al-Thani advocated for the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative from 2002, which proposed normalization between Israel and the Arab world. This would be contingent on Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 lines and the establishment of a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, a proposal many Israelis feel is no longer viable in the face of continuous Palestinian terror.

Despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties, Israel and Qatar cooperated last year to facilitate Israeli visitors attending the World Cup in Doha. Al-Thani noted Qatar’s ability to establish “reliable channels to communication” in the region, often aiding in peace agreements and ceasefires, particularly between Israel and Gaza.