Mediator Qatar briefs Trump envoy on Gaza truce talks
A boy plays with a rubber tyre next to the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Jan 11, 2025, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (File photo: AFP/Eyad Baba)
DOHA: Mediator Qatar said it briefed United States President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday (Jan 10) about Gaza ceasefire talks it has been brokering alongside Egypt and the US.
In their meeting in Doha, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani discussed with Witkoff "the latest developments in the region, especially the efforts aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip", the Qatari foreign ministry said.
Earlier this month, the mediators launched a new push to end the Gaza war and secure the release of dozens of Israeli hostages still held captive in the Palestinian territory.
Diplomatic sources have indicated mounting international pressure on Hamas and Israel to strike a deal in their indirect negotiations.
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that there had been "real progress" in the talks.
Trump has warned Hamas of "hell to pay" if it does not free the remaining captives before his inauguration on Jan 20.
But several analysts believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers a deal to be finalised under Trump's presidency rather than in the final days of Joe Biden's administration.
"I cannot foresee significant progress until President Trump assumes office," Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israeli think tank the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told AFP earlier this week.
