DOHA: Negotiations on consolidating the US-backed truce in the war in Gaza are at a “critical” moment, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Saturday.
Mediators are working to force the next phase of ceasefire forward, the Qatari prime minister, whose country has been a key mediator in the war, said during a panel at the Doha Forum conference in Qatar.
“We are at a critical moment. It’s not yet there. So what we have just done is a pause,” Al-Thani said, referring to violence subsiding after the Gaza truce took effect nearly a month ago.
“We cannot consider it yet a ceasefire. A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces — (until) there is stability back in Gaza, people can go in and out — which is not the case today.”
Talks on achieving the next stages of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the two-year war in the Palestinian enclave have been ongoing.
The plan calls for an interim technocratic Palestinian government in Gaza, overseen by an international “board of peace” and backed by an international security force. Agreeing on the makeup and mandate of the international security force has been particularly challenging.
On Thursday, an Israeli delegation held talks in Cairo with mediators on the immediate return of the last hostage held in Gaza, which would complete a key initial part of Trump’s plan.
Since the fragile truce started, Hamas has returned all 20 living hostages and 27 bodies in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners.
Violence has tailed off since the October 10 ceasefire but Israel has continued to strike Gaza and conduct demolitions of what it says is Hamas infrastructure. Hamas and Israel have traded blame for violating the US-backed agreement.
Qatar PM says Gaza truce incomplete without ‘full withdrawal’ by Israel
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Qatar PM says Gaza truce incomplete without ‘full withdrawal’ by Israel
- Gaza talks at critical moment, ceasefire not complete, Qatar's prime minister says
Turkiye blocks aid convoy to Syria’s Kobani: NGOs
- They said the aid was blocked before it reached the Turkiye-Syria border
- “Blocking humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic necessities is unacceptable,” said the platform
ANKARA: Turkish authorities have blocked a convoy carrying aid to Kobani, a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria encircled by the Syrian army, NGOs and a Turkish MP said on Saturday.
They said the aid was blocked before it reached the Turkiye-Syria border, despite an agreement announced on Friday between the Syrian government and the country’s Kurdish minority to gradually integrate the Kurds’ military and civilian institutions into the state.
Twenty-five lorries containing water, milk, baby formula and blankets collected in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkiye’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, “were prevented from crossing the border,” said the Diyarbakir Solidarity and Protection Platform, which organized the aid campaign.
“Blocking humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic necessities is unacceptable, both from the point of view of humanitarian law and from the point of view of moral responsibility,” said the platform, which brings together several NGOs.
Earlier this week, residents of Kobani told AFP they were running out of food, water and electricity because the city was overwhelmed with people fleeing the advance of the Syrian army.
Kurdish forces accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab in Arabic.
“The trucks are still waiting in a depot on the highway,” said Adalet Kaya, an MP from Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM party who was accompanying the convoy.
“We will continue negotiations today. We hope they will be able to cross at the Mursitpinar border post,” he told AFP.
Mursitpinar is located on the Turkish side of the border, across from Kobani.
Turkish authorities have kept the border crossing closed since 2016, while occasionally opening it briefly to allow humanitarian aid to pass through.
DEM and Turkiye’s main opposition CHP called this week for Mursitpinar to be opened “to avoid a humanitarian tragedy.”
Turkish authorities said aid convoys should use the Oncupinar border crossing, 180 kilometers (110 miles) away.
“It’s not just a question of distance. We want to be sure the aid reaches Kobani and is not redirected elsewhere by Damascus, which has imposed a siege,” said Kaya.
After months of deadlock and fighting, Damascus and the Syrian Kurds announced an agreement on Friday that would see the forces and administration of Syria’s Kurdish autonomous region gradually integrated into the Syrian state.
Kobani is around 200 kilometers from the Kurds’ stronghold in Syria’s far northeast.
Kurdish forces liberated the city from a lengthy siege by the Daesh group in 2015 and it took on symbolic value as their first major victory against the militants.
Kobani is hemmed in by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all sides, pending the entry into the force of Friday’s agreement.
