Iran Informs Qatar of its Stance on Ceasefire in Gaza

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (QNA)
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (QNA)
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Iran Informs Qatar of its Stance on Ceasefire in Gaza

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (QNA)
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (QNA)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian informed senior Qatari officials of his country's point of view on the war on the Gaza Strip, saying it was natural that the Iran loyalists will not remain silent in the face of all the Israeli crimes.

Amir-Abdollahian met with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, where he conveyed a verbal message from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on several regional and international issues, especially the developments in the Palestinian territories.

The Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported that Amir-Abdollahian also met with Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

During the meeting, they discussed means of cooperation to advance an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territories, protect civilians, and prevent the expansion of violence and conflict in the region, which will have dire consequences for everyone.

The Qatari FM said he discussed with Amir-Abdollahian the escalations in Gaza and the West Bank and advancing ceasefire efforts.

He wrote in a post on the "X" platform: "We stressed intensifying efforts to prevent expanding conflict that will result in serious consequences for everyone."

According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Amir-Abdollahian stressed that the Zionist regime continues to commit crimes against the defenseless people and impose a siege on Gaza.

"We are gradually witnessing an increase in reactions and the escalation and expansion of the scope of conflicts in the region," he added.

Before leaving Doha for Ankara, Amir-Abdollahian met with the head of the Hamas politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, for the second time this month.

"It was necessary to use the latest political opportunities to stop the war, and if the situation goes out of control, no party will be safe from its consequences," the top official said, according to Iranian media.

He said the US was part of the war in Gaza, adding that Washington is in no position to ask others for restraint.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani announced that an immediate ceasefire is on the agenda of discussions between Iran and Qatar, stressing the need to halt the Zionist bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and send humanitarian aid.

Kanaani told reporters accompanying the Iranian delegation that the visit comes from Iranian regional consultations and international efforts to help end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

According to the spokesman, the two countries agreed that the current situation is unacceptable and expanding the scope of the conflict could affect everyone, pointing out that the situation in the region is on the verge of an explosion due to the crimes of the Zionist entity.

Qatar could convey Iran's message to concerned parties, said Kanaani, adding that Iran shared its point of view, and for it, the ceasefire and truce are an important humanitarian point.

Concerning the hostages, Kanaani said that the conditions in the Gaza Strip now do not allow for the release of some prisoners.

Kanaani accused the US of obstructing efforts to reach a ceasefire in the enclave because of its use of veto power against a Russian and a Brazilian resolution in the Security Council.

Iran issued several warnings and threats to Israel and the US, but it has so far refrained from revealing its position if the war between Israel and Hamas turns into a regional conflict, according to an analysis published by Agence France Presse.



No Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Egyptian and Palestinian Sources Say

 Palestinians carry a casualty removed from under the rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip April 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians carry a casualty removed from under the rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip April 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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No Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Egyptian and Palestinian Sources Say

 Palestinians carry a casualty removed from under the rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip April 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians carry a casualty removed from under the rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip April 13, 2025. (Reuters)

The latest round of talks in Cairo to restore the defunct Gaza ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said on Monday.

The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.

Israel, which restarted its military campaign in Gaza last month after a ceasefire agreed in January unraveled, has said it will not end the war until Hamas is stamped out. The group has ruled out any proposal that it lay down its arms.

But despite that fundamental disagreement, the sources said a Hamas delegation led by the group's Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended.

An Egyptian source told Reuters the latest proposal to extend the truce would see Hamas free an increased number of hostages. Israeli minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet, told Army Radio on Monday that Israel was seeking the release of around 10 hostages, raised from previous Hamas consent to free five.

Hamas has asked for more time to respond to the latest proposal, the Egyptian source said.

"Hamas has no problem, but it wants guarantees Israel agrees to begin the talks on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement" leading to an end to the war, the Egyptian source said.

AIRSTRIKES

Hamas freed 33 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire which began in January. But the second phase, which was meant to begin at the start of March and lead to the end of the war, was never launched.

Since restarting their military campaign last month, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and uprooted hundreds of thousands, seizing swathes of territory and imposing a total blockade on all supplies to the entire enclave.

Meanwhile, 59 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of Hamas. Israel believes up to 24 of them are alive.

Palestinians say the wave of Israeli attacks since the collapse of the ceasefire has been among the deadliest and most intense of the war, hitting an exhausted population surviving in the enclave's ruins.

In Jabalia, a community on Gaza's northern edge, rescue workers in orange vests were trying to smash through concrete with a sledgehammer to recover bodies buried underneath a building that collapsed in an Israeli strike.

Feet and a hand of one person could be seen under a concrete slab. Men carried a body wrapped in a blanket. Workers at the scene said as many as 25 people had been killed.

The Israeli military said it had struck there against fighters planning an ambush.

In Khan Younis in the south, a camp of makeshift tents had been shredded into piles of debris by an airstrike. Families had returned to poke through the rubbish in search of belongings.

"We used to live in houses. They were destroyed. Now, our tents have been destroyed too. We don't know where to stay," said Ismail al-Raqab, who returned to the area after his family fled the raid before dawn.

EGYPT'S SISI MEETS QATARI EMIR

The leaders of the two Arab countries that have led the ceasefire mediation efforts, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, met in Doha on Sunday. The Egyptian source said Sisi had called for additional international guarantees for a truce agreement, beyond those provided by Egypt and Qatar themselves.

US President Donald Trump, who has backed Israel's decision to resume its campaign and called for the Palestinian population of Gaza to leave the territory, said last week that progress was being made in returning the hostages.

The war was triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 50,900 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.