January 14, 2025
Mediator Qatar says ‘major issues’ resolved, truce talks at ‘closest point’ to deal
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has been touting a major “breakthrough” in longstanding and so far fruitless international ceasefire talks for Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
The Gulf country, one of the leading mediators in the talks, said it was “hopeful” that the talks had entered their “final stage.”
“I can confirm that the talks are going on at the highest level here in Doha as we speak right now,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
“During the past months, there were underlying issues, major issues between the two parties unresolved. These issues were resolved during the talks in the past couple of weeks, and therefore we have reached a point where the major issues that were preventing a deal from happening were addressed,” he said.
Al-Ansari said the talks were now focused on the “final details of reaching an agreement.”
Israel over the weekend sent its Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea to the talks in Doha to participate.
This is not the first time that one of the lead negotiators — whether Qatar, the US or Egypt — have hailed a breakthrough in talks and the possibility of an imminent truce.
The timing of this latest push is also internationally conspicuous, coming in the final days before US President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
