Qatar's prime minister on Monday (29/1) said he hoped US retaliation efforts for an attack that killed three soldiers in Jordan would not reduce progress in efforts towards a new agreement on the release of Israeli-Hamas hostages, in talks held at the weekend Then.
“I hope that nothing will undermine the efforts we have made or jeopardize the process,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al Thani told the audience at a discussion at a research institute in Washington.
He conveyed this when asked whether if the US responded to drone attacks carried out by Iran-backed militants it would be able to cancel the existing agreement.
“There are definite demands for a permanent ceasefire ahead of the negotiations, which I believe is that we are moving from that situation to a new situation that could potentially lead to a ceasefire, permanently in the future. And this is the goal of all of us, because we have also seen the suffering of the people in Gaza, and we have seen the extent of the destruction there,” said Sheikh Mohammed.
Tensions have risen in the Middle East since Israel began air and ground attacks, with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi forces attacking US and other targets in the Red Sea in attacks that disrupted global ship traffic.
In a major escalation of tensions, three US service members were killed and at least 34 people were injured in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on US troops in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border, US officials said Sunday.
The Qatari prime minister said “US retaliation will definitely have an impact, one way or another, this step will definitely impact regional security and we hope that all of them can be overcome.” (ns/hour)