Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Sky News on Friday that the recently approved deal followed the same framework as that agreed in December 2023.
Thani said the framework was first discussed in December 2023, just two months after the start of the war.
Ceasefire deal is ‘last chance for Gaza,’ Qatar PM says ⬇️In exclusive interview with @SkyYaldaHakimSheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani warned that ‘peace will not come’ if there is no Palestinian state https://t.co/qI6OvYgo6e pic.twitter.com/mLqZ7POhus
– Sky News (@SkyNews) January 17, 2025
The current agreement represents “essentially 13 months of wasted negotiation over details that make no sense and are not worth a single life we lost in Gaza or a single hostage life lost to the bombing.”
He called the agreement “the last chance to save Gaza” and stressed that “peace will not come” if there is no Palestinian state.
“We are aiming for a Palestinian state and an Israeli state living side by side, in peace,” he told Sky News.
The central role of Trump
Thani praised new President-elect Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff, the new special envoy to the Middle East, for helping to secure the deal.
“We believe President Trump can have a greater impact on the region. Steve Witkoff has shown leadership in these negotiations. We see the way he fought to get a deal done.”
Thani said if this approach was maintained they could “create a lot of good things for the region” over the next four years.
His comments echo similar comments from former Hamas Minister Basem Naim, who told Al Arabiya on Friday that “the Gaza ceasefire agreement would not have happened without Donald Trump.”
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert both pointed out that Trump pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get a deal. Bannon told Politico that “it (Trump’s threat) was not a warning to Hamas. It was a warning to Netanyahu. To Bibi.”
Trump has aggressively insisted that a deal be reached before he takes office on January 20: “All hell is going to break loose. If these hostages do not return, I do not want to harm your negotiations; if they are not back by the time I take office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” he told reporters.
“Frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office,” Trump said after the deal was announced, warning both sides against the deal failing.
