Dialogue and trust are key ingredients to finalizing a deal for the return of the hostages from Gaza, Qatar’s envoy to Germany said as he expressed his disappointment over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to send an Israeli delegation back to Cairo.
“I didn’t want this to happen,” Qatari Ambassador to Germany Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani told The Jerusalem Post’s Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein in Berlin.
“I wanted at least for the communication to continue because without communication, how can we get to the bottom of it?” he asked.
First Qatari participation in an Israeli-organized conference
Klein publicly interviewed Thani at Joint Perspectives, a cooperative conference hosted by WELT and The Jerusalem Post, in what is the first time that a Qatari official has participated in a conference jointly organized by an Israeli news outlet.
Qatar and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, but there has been communication between the two countries as a result of Doha’s work on the hostage deal.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has been personally involved in the process and the talks, including meeting with hostage families and CIA Director William Burns in Paris and Egypt. The prime minister was also in Washington this month where he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
An Israeli delegation had been in Cairo earlier this week, but returned home, as significant gaps remained between the parties.
“Qatar is putting all its effort” into securing the release of the hostages, the Qatari ambassador to Germany said as he referred to the remaining 134 captives in Gaza out of the original 253 seized in the Hamas-led attack on October 7.
“The prime minister is shuttling between the US, Egypt, and Paris; he is receiving massive phone calls and he is having so many meetings,” according to Al Thani, who is part of Qatar’s royal family and therefore related to the prime minister.
In his office “everyone is on their toes” working “around the clock.”
Al Thani has been active in trying to get hostages back home.
The ambassador said he does not communicate with Hamas in Gaza, but he speaks to the office in Doha that is part of the negotiators. He noted that communication with Hamas in Gaza is difficult given that the Israeli army controls much of the enclave.
Al Thani described how he has been active in Germany.
“I met” a group of relatives of the hostages “five or six times,” the ambassador to Germany said, explaining that he has personally raised their names to the team in his country that is helping to mediate a hostage deal together with Egypt.
“We helped in releasing [the hostages] by sending the[ir] names and putting them on the list, because sometimes names could be lost and no one would hear of them,” Al Thani explained.
Ambassadors in other capitals, such as Washington and London, are also holding such meetings and doing their best to help the families, he said.
Everyone wants to see the hostages released as “soon as possible,” Al Thani stressed. “We all hope for it, we all wish for it,” and we are keeping “our fingers crossed.”
Qatar has sought to be part of the Middle East’s diplomatic heartbeat by playing the role of a mediator, the prominence of which has been elevated by its work in helping to secure the initial November deal that saw the release of 105 of the hostages.
Doha has remained in the limelight as it has sought to finalize a second deal.
Qatar has been criticized for allowing Hamas leaders to reside in its country, a move that it has said has given it an edge on this issue.
Doha envoy's relationship with Israel's Gadi Eisenkot
While Jerusalem and Doha are often diplomatic opponents, Thani has been to Israel and has a relationship with Minister Gadi Eisenkot, who is the former IDF chief-of-staff.
The two men met when they both studied at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania.
Thani referred to Eisenkot as a “friend. I know him. I know his family. I visited him in his office, and we had lunch together, and he gave me a nice tour, by the way.”
Upon hearing the news that Eisenkot’s son Gal, 25, was killed in combat in Gaza, Thani called to offer his condolences, explaining that he was saddened by the news. “I always have a link with him. This is a friendship and I will keep it,” Thani said.
Regionally, he said, Qatar wants to promote good relations.
“Every time we intervene” in the region, “we intervene for the good of the cause, and to de-escalate the situation and find a way of peace,” Al Thani said.
“Our region deserves better” than to be embroiled in conflict, he said: “It deserves to live in harmony and coexistence and enjoy economic growth.
“Qatar is a peace-loving nation. We want peace and prosperity in the region. Our cornerstone in our foreign policy is to promote peace,” the ambassador to Germany said.
Doha’s efforts on this score have become “a trademark” and a “flagship” of its diplomatic work, he said.
“We wish for a peaceful solution of coexistence with everyone.”