Qatar’s prime minister wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an exclusive interview with CNN on Wednesday, calling Israel’s attempted assassination of Doha’s Hamas leader “a wild bar.”
“We thought we were dealing with civilized people,” Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Jasim al-Thani told CNN’s Becky Anderson. “That’s how we deal with others. And the actions (Netanyahu) took – I can’t explain that, but it’s a wild behaviour.”
Al Thani added that he believes Israel “killed hope” the strike in Doha on Tuesday.
“I was meeting one of the hostage family on the morning of the attack,” Al Thani said. “They rely on this (ceasefire) mediation. They have no other hopes for that.”
“I think what Netanyahu did yesterday was that he just killed hopes for those hostages,” the prime minister said.
The attacks in Doha were nothing but “national horrors,” Al Thani told CNN. The prime minister won the podium at a press conference on Tuesday and used the same term when he took over Israel for his actions.
During the press conference, Al Thani was visibly angry. He expressed the same anger Wednesday, about 36 hours after the strike.
“There is no word to describe how furious we are from such actions. …This is the horror of the nation,” Al Thani told CNN. “We are betrayed.”
Al Thani did not specifically reveal the fate of Hamas chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayyah, following the Israeli attacks targeting the group’s leadership in Doha on Tuesday.
When asked by CNN about where the Chief Negotiator was, Al Thani said, “Until now… there is no official declaration.”
Hamas initially said that five of his members were killed on strike, but he was unable to assassinate the negotiating delegation.
Al Thani said a 22-year-old Qatari guard was killed in the attack.
“We’re trying to determine if there are other people there… We have Catalis who are in a very dangerous situation,” he added.
Al Thani said he could not predict Hamas’ response to the latest US principles to a ceasefire should Israel not be hit by Doha, but said Israel and Hamas “believe that there will be no chance” to secure a ceasefire.
Shortly after the strike, Al Thani told reporters that Qatar would not be thwarted by mediation efforts. However, the prime minister said on Wednesday that Netanyahu “defeated the possibility of stability and peace” by targeting Hamas’ leadership in Qatar’s capital.
“I have also rethinked the whole process over the past few weeks that Netanyahu wasted our time,” Al Thani said.
“He wasn’t serious about anything,” he added.
Al-Thani added that Qataris is “reevaluating everything” about its involvement in future ceasefire talks, and that it is in a “very detailed conversation” with the US government about how they will proceed.
Qatar, hosting the largest US military base in the Middle East, is a major US ally. US President Donald Trump was informed of the strike just before it began, not by Israel itself but by General Dan Kane’s chairman.
According to another US official, Trump immediately told White House envoy Steve Witkov to brief Qatar. Witkov has a long-standing relationship with Katalis.
Trump stopped condemning the attack, but his spokesman on Tuesday said the president was concerned. Al-Thani told CNN on Wednesday that the US had expressed support for Qatar “often”;
“I follow up with all US officials to see how we can act as we speak,” added Al Thani.
This weekend, the US proposed a new ceasefire framework. Trump said Israel agreed to the terms and was “time when Hamas accepts it as well.”
Qatar’s prime minister, according to an official familiar with the discussion, urged Hamas at a meeting in Doha to “respond to the proposal.”
Hamas was scheduled to respond to the proposal Tuesday evening, the diplomat explained the speech that Israel told CNN before attacking Doha.
Qatar hopes there will be a “collective reaction” to Israeli strikes against Hamas authorities in Doha, Al Thani said.
“There are responses that arise from the region. This response is currently being discussed in consultation with other partners in the region,” Al Thani said.
Al Thani said the summit of Arab Islam will be held in Doha in the coming days, and participants will decide on a series of actions.
However, Al-Thani said Qatar would not ask other regional partners to respond in a specific way.
“There’s a collective response that should be coming from this region,” Al Thani said, “I want something meaningful that will prevent Israel from continuing this bullying.”
