Israel is working to undermine Middle East peace and de-escalation efforts “by implementing settlement, colonial, and aggressive plans,” Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Hind Abdulrahman al-Muftah, said in Geneva on Tuesday.
“The State of Qatar affirmed that the Israeli occupation is seeking to undermine peace prospects and de-escalation efforts in the region by implementing settlement, colonial, and aggressive plans and policies that pose a threat to peace and security,” the Gulf country’s foreign ministry quoted the representative as saying.
Muftah also reiterated, during the debate on the situation of human rights in “Palestine and other occupied Arab territories” at the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, that Qatar welcomed countries recognizing a Palestinian state.
Israel must be held accountable, Qatari representative says
She also called on countries to pressure Israel and hold it responsible for “the war and crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip” as well as its “occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories.”
The ministry’s statement on Muftah’s comments did not include any remarks by the representative on US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which Israel has already accepted.
Later, however, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said the country would host a meeting with representatives from Turkey and a Hamas delegation to discuss Trump’s plan to end the war.
Qatar’s assertion that Israel was working to undermine peace in the region follows a Monday meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, to discuss the American plan for peace in Gaza.
During the meeting, after which Trump announced Israel had accepted the plan, Netanyahu spoke to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and apologized for Israel’s strike on Hamas officials in Doha earlier in the month.
Netanyahu’s apology, wherein he told the Qatari head of state the strike would not be repeated, was required by Qatar in order to keep the Arab country’s involvement in mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas.