A spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says that Israel should not be able to delay the move to the next stage of the ceasefire plan on the grounds that the bodies of two hostages are still held in Gaza.
In an interview with an Al-Araby Al-Jadeed podcast, Majed al-Ansari says the issue of the two remaining bodies “is the most important” right now.
“We don’t believe Israel should be allowed to obstruct the implementation of the agreement over these two bodies. At the same time, of course, the Palestinian side is working to retrieve the bodies and preempt any Israeli pretexts,” he says.
“The current endeavor for Qatar and its partners in the region is to move from the first phase to the second [of the plan], and thus achieve a sustainable peace that can comprehensively end the state of war in the Gaza Strip,” he says. “There are significant challenges in reaching this stage of truce, but the focus now is on maintaining it long enough to reach a political solution in which all parties in the region, along with the international community and the United States, work together to make this plan a success and end the war.”
Ansari additionally says that any potential normalization between Doha and Israel will only occur within the framework
