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Qatar: UAE, Bahrain's ties with Israel 'sovereign decision'

November 20, 2020 at 2:39 pm

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in in Doha, Qatar on 3 November 2019 [Cem Özdel/Anadolu Agency]

Qatar’s foreign minister said that the Gulf state does not have a position on its neighbours’ decision to normalise relations with Israel, Al-Monitor reported.

Speaking at the virtual Global Security Forum earlier this week, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani reaffirmed his country’s support for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the two-state solution and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

“The Emirati and the Bahraini decision, it’s their own sovereign decision to conduct a bilateral relationship, and we don’t interfere,” Al Thani said.

He, however, added that a “united front” of Arab states vis-a-vis Israel is preferable for the Palestinians.

“I think it’s better to have a united front and to put the interests of the Palestinian people [first],” he continued. “The Palestinian people, they are the ones who are paying for this conflict.”

In September, Qatar revealed that it had refused to normalise ties with Israel, stressing that this is not the core of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

“We don’t think that normalization was the core of this conflict and hence it can’t be the answer,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater said.

This came as its Gulf neighbours signed an agreement with Israel at the White House.

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