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“I can confirm that the talks (on Gaza ceasefire deal) are going on the highest level here in Doha right now. We are anticipating updates from those involved in the meetings,” Al Ansari said in a weekly media briefing yesterday.

“We are hopeful that this would lead very soon to an agreement,” Ansari said. “It is important not to raise the expectations to a level that doesn’t link to what’s happening on the ground right now. We believe that we are at the final stages but obviously until there is an announcement, there will be no announcements and therefore we shouldn’t be over excited about what’s happening right now.”  He added: “We have reached a point where the major issues that were preventing a deal from happening were addressed.”

He further said, “We do believe that we were able to do the negotiations and with our partners in these negotiations in Egypt and the United States to minimise a lot of the disagreements between the parties for the talks that are ongoing now.”

He hoped the talks would lead to an agreement soon.  “We hope about some developments obviously as we have said this for months that this war should end as the humanitarian cost of the ongoing war is unbearable and continues to be unbearable for the people of and for the civilian security of this region.”

“We again call on both parties to seriously engage in their negotiations, which is happening right now, and we do applaud the fact that the changes are taking place.”

To a question, Al Ansari said the main reason why Qatar was more optimistic right now was the fact that there were many underlying issues, major unresolved issues between the two parties, which were resolved during the talks in the past couple of weeks. 

He added: “Both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration played their role in the past couple of weeks as they have been involved fully in the talks.”

He noted that the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration both were working together here in Doha and beyond in the region to make sure that the deal happens.