Early today, CNN’s Becky Anderson sat down for an exclusive interview with the lead negotiator from the Qatari team who helped broker the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, who also serves as Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, described the past 45 days as an “intense period,” in his first comments since the deal was announced.
“Our work was extremely intensive as you can imagine, it’s a period of high escalation, military clashes, humanitarian escalation, ground invasion… All of that made our task extremely difficult, to secure an agreement between two parties that have zero level of trust with each other,” Al-Khulaifi explained.
He also emphasized the significance of the deal, and hopes that “this is a step towards more positive developments.”
“Our work is not done,” he stressed. “Our main objective here is really to seek a permanent ceasefire and stopping the bloodshed of people and improving the lives of the Palestinian people.”
Al-Khulaifi also elaborated on the operation of the agreed upon deal, describing the “organized schedule” which will allow for hostage releases each day.
On the process of negotiation:
“It was an intense period. We’ve passed by a period of ups and downs in the last few weeks of the agreement. But gladly we’ve managed to secure an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a humanitarian pause with, of course, the releases of the hostages was one of the main objectives of our work in the last period of time.”
On whether this is the deal Qatar wanted:
“It is the deal that the parties want and I think that’s the most important thing that a mediator can do. Our work was extremely intensive as you can you can imagine, it’s a period of high escalation, military clashes, humanitarian escalation, ground invasion… All of that made our task extremely difficult to secure an agreement between two parties that have zero level of trust with each other. Despite those challenges we’ve managed with our regional international partner, to work closely towards those provisions of the agreement and manage last night to secure it.”
On the significance of this deal and Qatar’s main objectives:
“It’s extremely significant, because we believe that this is a step towards more positive developments. This is what we hope, at least, is that this agreement will invite the parties to think more about the current situations and come up with better equity humans or a bigger agreement, so to speak, when it comes to that conflict. Our main objective here is really to seek a permanent ceasefire and stopping the bloodshed of the people and improving the lives of the Palestinian people.”
On working towards a permanent ceasefire:
“Even the temporary ceasefire was not being considered at the early times by the Israelis, our continuous efforts, [and] continuous talks with the parties made that a reality, made that genuine consideration by both parties to take that step. So we still we remain hopeful and our effort is not going to stop at this level. Our work is not done. We’re going to continue working with both sides, hoping that we can secure this bigger objective.”
“We’ve encouraged the parties to include those provisions within the agreement that allow the extension which provides hope, at least for us as interlocutors, to reach out to those parties and to make sure that we try to convince them that it is the best for the whole cause is to have a longer period and a thorough discussion about about this case, rather than using a military solution. I’ve never believed in the military solution. And it’s always been proven to us that dialogue and referring to peaceful methods of solving this has been always the preferable option.”
On the operation details of the pause:
“We have established this operation that will allow us not only to monitor the implementation of the agreement by the parties, making sure that they fulfilling the agreements or the provisions of the agreement itself, but also to make sure that we monitor the whole process, including the release of the hostages. And this operation room will help us as well to create that direct line of communication with both sides, but also with the International Committee of Red Cross, which we’re very grateful for the work that they’ve been they’ve been doing, and they will continue to deal with this.”
“The message that we received from both sides are very clear that they are committed to this agreement, and the announcement will happen.”
On the schedule of the four-day pause:
“Within the four day pause, in each day, there will be an obligation at each side an obligation of the Israelis and an obligation or Hamas, making sure that they’re going to fulfil those obligations, and each day we aim to have a number of releases. So we try the we’ve managed to get the parties to agree on the releases systematically… In other words, there will be an organized schedule, allowing the releases in each day. And each party is quite familiar now with their obligations.”
“A minimum of ten [hostages released each day] – we’re working towards that. Now, if something happened, of course, they will notify us and we’ll make sure that we can engage between both parties and making sure that we keep this agreement sustained.”
On who will be released as part of this deal:
“This agreement specifically focuses on civilian women and children in each side, on both sides, and we hope that within the four days, we will be able to complete the release of women and children in both sides, moving to the safe side, away from this war. This comes from our strong belief that we stand on the sides of the civilians, with no discrimination whatsoever in terms of their religion, race, they have nothing to do with this war, and they need to stay out of this war. And that was one of the motives that [we] took into consideration.”
On how Israeli raids of the Al Shifa hospital affected mediation efforts:
“Any escalation would affect our work. And to be honest with you, we passed by a very difficult period of mediation. We’ve asked the parties that it’s essential to de-escalate the tension to not target vital humanitarian infrastructures such as hospitals, educational institutions, and others. These are not going to help anyone reach an agreement and definitely is not going to help the mediator. So we’ve continued that engagement.”
On the humanitarian aid component of this deal:
“This agreement has two major components, the first one related to the release of the hostages. And the second one is related to providing not only a quantity, but also quality, humanitarian aid and assistance as needed. That part specifically [involves] not only the two the two parties, but also regional stakeholders, and international stakeholders, on providing the necessary human assistance, but also to help and support those agencies, the ICRC, the UN agencies, to fulfil their roles, and really to provide that humanitarian aid needed. One of the most interesting components within that humanitarian aid basically, is the fuel. And if you will, has been a debatable issue and the early times of that conflict. Now we’ve managed to secure fuel being provided for a vital infrastructure, such as hospitals and others. And that is a progress. That’s what we hope that that the humanitarian aids will continue, and will remain as citizens and people and has have nothing to do with this war.”
On allegations that Qatar is not an honest broker:
“We’ve passed by a period of strong criticism during our work. And to be honest with you this did not change anything in terms of our work, we still received a valid requests by both sides to get others involved with that mediation. And that was our main focus. So we were not distracted by false accusations, baseless arguments, that has nothing to do with other what other did and will do when it comes to the Palestinian case. So to be honest with you, this is this is not our main focus right now. Our main focus is to work on that mediation, and continue until we reach a better area. And here we’re talking about a just solution to the Palestinian case, that can bring more peace and stability to the region.”
