Abraham Accords Do Not ‘Align with Qatari Foreign Policy’
Days after the team responsible for the Abraham Accords – the normalization agreements Israel signed with several Arab Gulf states – assembled in Jerusalem to commemorate the foreign policy achievement, a Qatari official made it clear that his nation will not be following the leads of the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told the Global Security Conference in Doha that although it is willing to become involved in specific events such as mediating potential escalations or providing third-party assistance for the benefit of the Palestinians, Israel needs to “end the occupation” which is the “core issue.” Qatar played key roles in ending the eleven-day war between Hamas and Israel in May and facilitating delivery of aid to the Palestinians. Al-Thani dismissed a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett making changes to Israel’s policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians, remarking that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s successor has yet to deliver “real steps” to solve the conflict.