QATAR FOREIGN MINISTRY: Qatar rejects normalising relations with Israel

Speaking to Bloomberg On Monday, the spokeswoman of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater, said: “We do not think that normalization was the core of this conflict and hence it cannot be the answer.”

Al-Khater added: “The root of this conflict is about the dire conditions that the Palestinians live under” as “people without a state, living under occupation.”

Al-Khater’s statement came ahead of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain signing their normalization deals with Israel in a ceremony scheduled in the White House on Tuesday.

The deals will normalize diplomatic, commercial, security, and other relations between Israel and the Gulf states.

The Palestinian authorities want an independent state based on the de facto borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war (النكسة), in which Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza and annexed East Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani told White House adviser Jared Kushner that Doha advocates a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, to end the conflict with Israel. 

Qatar diplomatic crisis

Al-Khater also pointed to progress towards a solution to the trouble with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, who imposed a stifling blockade on their Gulf neighbor in June 2017.

Commending Kuwait’s efforts to bring a conclusion to the dispute and the economic and diplomatic blockade, she expressed: “In the last two months, there have been messengers and messages moving back and forth.”

“It’s too early to talk about a real breakthrough,” but “the next few weeks may reveal something.”

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