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"The US administration knows about the talks,"
Chairman of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza Ambassador
Mohammed al-Amadi told Xinhua.
Al-Amadi, who is in a visit to Gaza, said no deal has been reached
so far, adding that negotiations are still ongoing to reach a comprehensive
deal to improve the situation in the poverty-stricken territory.
Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since
Islamic Hamas movement seized the territory after routing forces loyal to
President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
The blockade has pushed Gaza's 2 million populations deeper into
poverty with inflating unprecedented unemployment rates.
In the recent nine years, Israel and Hamas movement have been
engaged in three major wars that claimed the lives of thousands of
Palestinians and Israelis.
The Qatari official said the United States has recently proposed
projects for the Gaza Strip, which will provide basic services such as
electricity, desalination of drinking water, work and rehabilitation of the
industrial zone in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Amadi said that the projects were presented by US President
Donald Trump's senior advisor Jared Kushner during his recent Middle East
tour, which included Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Israel.
"We demanded lifting the blockade on Gaza, which suffered
three wars ... we highlighted to the Americans and Israelis the need to
achieve this, and we are working on this matter, but so far we have not
reached any results," he revealed.
Israeli Haaretz daily reported recently that the Trump
administration is trying to convince Arab Gulf countries to invest hundreds
of millions of US dollars in economic projects in the Gaza Strip, in an
attempt to calm the security situation there and generate momentum before the
White House presents its Middle East peace plan, known as the "Deal of
the Century."
In response, the Palestinian Authority accused the US
administration of planning to separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank in
order to undermine the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Al-Amadi said any solutions for the Gaza Strip crises must be
agreed by the Palestinian Authority.
"We will not interfere without the consent and the presence
of the Palestinian Authority," he stressed.
He also affirmed that Qatar will not interfere in the US Mideast
peace plan seeking to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stressing
that Qatar will back any decision made by the Palestinian Authority in this
regard.
Speaking about the Egyptian-sponsored internal Palestinian
reconciliation between Hamas movement and Fatah party, al-Amadi said
"Qatar will support any plans or agreement that will help end the
sufferings of the Palestinians in Gaza."
During his current visit to Gaza, al-Amadi announced the
distribution of a grant of US$2.5 million to Gaza universities in addition to
his country's donation of the same value as medical supplies to hospitals.
"We are looking for a permanent solution to the problems of
Gaza and we want to prevent any new war against the enclave," the Qatari
diplomat said, adding that he was told by Hamas and Israel that they are not
interested in a new war.
"But we have agreed with Hamas and Israel that in the event
of a war, our projects will not be targeted unless they were used by
Hamas," he said.
In 2012, Qatar launched a package of projects related to the
fields of housing, health and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip with a total
value of US$407 million.
Qatar also pledged to donate US$1 billion during the international
donor conference held in 2014 in Egypt for the reconstruction of the war-torn
Gaza.
The conference, which was held two months after a deadly 51-day
long Israeli war on Gaza, raised US$5.4 billion.
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Source: NDO
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