Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told CNN Wednesday that the lifting of US sanctions on Syria is the “right step moving forward.”
“So lifting the sanction, we believe it is the right step moving forward,” the prime minister told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview immediately following the Qatar-hosted state dinner for the United States. “What we decided to do is to start engaging with them, to start to see if they are saying and doing the right things, then we should support them. We should support the stability of Syria. We should support that Syria shouldn’t fail, and shouldn’t turn into a chaos.”
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he plans to lift sanctions on Syria following the fall of the Assad regime last year. The removal of the sanctions is a significant win for the Syrian government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who seized power after the stunning defeat of the Assad regime in December.
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Anderson also asked Al-Thani about the status of negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
The Qatari prime minister said he does not expect to see progress soon from the negotiations his country is holding over a ceasefire in Gaza, criticizing Israel for sending a “bad signal” by continuing to bomb the enclave while sending a delegation to the talks.
He said he had seen the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander as a “breakthrough that will help bring back the talks on track.”
But he added: “Unfortunately Israel’s reaction to this was (bombing) the next day, while sending the delegation.” He accused Israel of “basically sending the signal that (they) are not interested in negotiations.”
“Our teams are engaging with both parties. We hope to see some progress; I’m not sure if this progress will be something seen very soon with this continuing behaviour,” he said.
Israel sent a team to Doha to continue the discussions, which coincide with US President Donald Trump’s visit to Qatar.
But the Qatari prime minister added of the talks: “If there is no willingness to behave in a meaningful negotiation, then how can we reach the solution?”
“At the end of the day the decision is in the hands of the parties,” he said.
