Far-right Israel Minister Smotrich describes Qatar as ‘enemy state’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attacked the State of Qatar, noting that its continued participation in the negotiations for the return of hostages was a “serious mistake”, describing Qatar as an “enemy state”.

Smotrich, who is considered on the far-right, expressed his deep regret on Friday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s directive to send Mossad Head David Barnea to Qatar to participate in negotiations.

The minister posted on X: “Qatar is an enemy state that supports Hamas and backs its positions in the negotiations and its goal is to prevent us from destroying it. Qatar owns Al-Jazeera and severely damages Israel’s image in the world and the efforts of our war of existence.”

Smotrich suggested that the only way to bring back the hostages is: “With the surrender of Hamas through the continuation of military pressure as our heroic fighters are currently doing in the north of the Gaza Strip.”

From time to time, Qatar is attacked by the far right in Israel, led by Netanyahu and extremist Minister Smotrich, who called on the West to pressure Qatar to release the hostages last January.

The Qatari government has not commented on Smotrich’s statements, but Doha had previously denounced the statements against it by the far-right led by Netanyahu.

The statements of the Israeli finance minister came a day after an announcement was made regarding the departure of Barnea to Qatar next Sunday to discuss the possibility of resuming negotiations regarding the captives in Gaza.

Qatar plays a pivotal role in the mediation efforts to stop the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and launch prisoner negotiations. In November 2023, it reached a major deal in which hundreds of prisoners were exchanged from both sides.

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