Qatar hopes US’ retaliation won’t undercut hostage talks

WASHINGTON - Qatar’s prime minister on Jan 29 said he hoped United States retaliation for an attack that killed three US troops in Jordan would not undercut progress toward

a new Israel-Hamas hostage release deal in weekend talks.

“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardise the process,” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Jassim al Thani told a Washington think-tank audience, when asked if US retaliation for a drone attack by Iran-backed militants could scuttle an emerging deal.

Three US service members were killed

and at least 40 wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on US troops in north-eastern Jordan near the Syrian border, US officials said on Jan 28. It was the first deadly strike against US forces since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October, and marked a major escalation in tensions that have engulfed the Middle East.

Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns met Sheikh Mohammed, as well as the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and the head of Egyptian intelligence on Jan 28, in talks described as constructive by Israel, Qatar and the United States, albeit with significant gaps remaining.

US President Joe Biden has been trying to facilitate the release of the more than 100 hostages who remain captive after the deadly Oct 7 rampage into southern Israel by militants from Hamas, which rules Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Paris talks provided hope for a resumption of a negotiating process mediated by Qatar that collapsed after a first agreement in November saw Hamas free around 100 hostages.

A framework for a possible second deal developed in Paris “is a strong one and a compelling one that... offers hope that we can get back into this process”, he said at a news conference with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

“Hamas will have to make its own decisions,” said Mr Blinken, who declined to reveal details of the proposal.

According to Israel, some 1,200 people were killed and 253 abducted in the attack, which sparked

Israel’s war to eliminate Hamas.

Israel has since unleashed a torrent of strikes on Gaza that have flattened most of the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 26,000 people, Palestinian health officials say.

Tensions have surged around the Middle East since Israel began its aerial and ground offensive, with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi forces striking US and other targets in the

Red Sea in attacks that have disrupted global shipping.

Speaking at Washington’s Atlantic Council think-tank, the Qatari prime minister said US retaliation “will definitely have an impact... One way or another, it will definitely have an impact on regional security and we hope things get contained”. REUTERS