Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani
Doha, Qatar: Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met US Secretary of State H E Antony Blinken at Lusail Palace yesterday.
During the meeting, they discussed the close strategic ties between the two friendly countries, developments in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, the expansion of the violence cycle in the region and its repercussions on regional and global security and stability.
The meeting tackled the efforts of the two nations to reach an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that paves the way for a just, comprehensive, and sustainable solution for the Palestinian cause. In this framework, the two sides discussed the resumption of the process of exchanging detainees and prisoners between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). They also discussed accelerating and increasing the pace of humanitarian aid getting into the strip, due to the pressing and urgent needs, particularly water, food, and medicines.
The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasised, during the meeting, that ending the aggression on Gaza is not only the demand of the residents of the Gaza Strip but also the demand of all nations in the region and the world after the past few weeks witnessed an expansion in the war cycle and its spillover from the borders of the strip and the occupied Palestinian territories into the surrounding countries. He said the expansion of the violence cycle in the region that already faces relentless and chronic crises and conflict makes the situation more complex and endangers the existing negotiations aimed at reaching a truce in the Gaza Strip.
He reiterated Qatar’s call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, resort to the voice of wisdom, avoid escalation, refrain from taking decisions that could lead to further bloodshed, as well as spare civilian lives and ensure the freedom of commercial navigation.
He stressed that the military option will not resolve the region’s crises, underscoring the significance of addressing the root causes of a variety of escalation forms in the region, primarily the main issue which is the Palestinian cause and depriving the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights, noting the cataclysmic consequences arising from halting the funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In this context, he called for separation between UNRWA as a UN institution with deep-rooted values and traditions, and the claims unleashed against a handful of its personnel who are being interrogated.
