14 DAY TRIAL // A top Qatari official issued a formal statement on Monday, highlighting that his country's Foreign Ministry has been appointed in mediating the negotiations between the two Palestinian factions at war, Fatah and Hamas, as far as the establishment of the national unity government issue is concerned.
The official, who liked to keep his anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the issue, added that the Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al Thani is expected to meet with both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, in a separate series of meetings in Gaza City on Monday, to tackle the problem with both and see if there is any middle ground to be approached. "He will discuss the forming of a national unity government and will try to bring both sides closer", the official asserted.
He also added that it was the Qatari Foreign Minister's initiative to talk to Abbas on Monday, after he would have had a series of diplomatic discussions with one of the top leaders of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, in Damascus, Syria.
The news were confirmed by Nabil Abu Rudeina, the spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, who stated that the latter is indeed scheduled to meet with Sheikh Hamad "in order to continue discussion which started last week", referring to the visit conducted by Abbas to Doha last week.
The reason why Qatar intends to broker peace and national unity government initiatives is because it holds quite good diplomatic relations with both groups, but especially with Hamas, which chose to fully reject the proposal made by Abbas to form a national unity government that would ultimately recognize Israel, as well as all previous deals signed with the Jewish state, during a massive rally organized on Friday. The country also has a favorable diplomatic relationship with Israel, in terms of economy, with the latter conducting a trade mission in capital Doha since 1996.