Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon February 9, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

i24 News – Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Friday that his country doesn’t have a “war with Israel,” but pointed out that any deal between Arab countries and Israel must require peace with the Palestinians.

These statements were made in response to questions about a potential agreement between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia that the U.S. is trying to negotiate. Al-Thani said that Qatar’s position on such deals has remained consistent for years.

“We didn’t hear anything officially about any talks on Saudi-Israel, but at the end of the day, Qatar maintains the same position, that foreign policy decisions of each member state of the GCC — it’s based on their own assessment, on their own evaluation,” he said, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which two of the members, the UAE and Bahrain, established diplomatic ties with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords.

“At the end of the day, we don’t have a war with Israel, the Israelis have an occupation over the Palestinians,” he added. “So any agreement with the Israelis doesn’t represent peace, the peace (can be) represented only between them and the Palestinians.”

Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with Qatar. However last year, during the FIFA World Cup, the two countries made a deal allowing Israeli fans to attend the tournament and launched the first-ever direct charter flights from Tel Aviv to Doha.