Hamad bin Jassim : Qatar the first to begin relations with Israel

Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad ben Jassim Al Thani has admitted that Doha was the first to open relations with Israel.

In an interview with Russia Today channel with Hamad ben Jassim from his residence in Los Angeles in the United States, aired on Monday, the former Qatari official said, “I am not against having relations with Israel, I am the one who calls for peace and for a direct understanding with Israel, but an understanding on the basis of resolving the Palestinian issue”.

In a rare admission that Qatar and Israel have reached the level of normalization, the former Qatari official admitted, saying : “I am not against having relations with Israel, we are the first to start, and the first of our Arab members to have relations with Israel, and I am still calling for peace with it.”

On the role of Qatar in the recent developments in Palestine and the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, Hamad ben Jassim evaded the question, asking his interlocutor to ask the Qatari Foreign Minister, Mohammed ben Abdulrahman Al-Thani, about this.

Qatar was one of the first Arab countries to open direct contacts with Israel, but the nature of secrecy continued to characterize these relations.

Officials in Doha continued to stress that the level of communication does not exceed a commercial office in the Qatari capital, before announcing its closure in 2009.

Since 1996, Qatar has stressed that its contacts with Israel are limited to the economic aspect, but security and military coordination is announced by the Israeli side and documented by Western newspapers.

Media reports and statements by Western officials on occasion reveal that relations between Doha and Tel Aviv are ongoing. Mutual visits by officials between the two sides, the most famous of which was the Mossad chief’s secret meeting with Qatari officials in the Qatari capital in February 2019, do not stop.

Recently, Qatari officials have been keen to criticize the agreement of Arab countries to establish relations with Israel, in the form of media consumption and playing on the emotion of the Arab peoples.