Donald Trump wants Gaza ceasefire deal by the time he takes power, says Qatari PM
The man at the centre of negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire has told Sky News Donald Trump wants a deal done before he takes power in January.
Speaking exclusively to Sky’s The World with Yalda Hakim, the prime minister of Qatar expressed cautious optimism but said it required “maximum pressure” on all parties to end the fighting.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al Thani said Mr Trump’s advisers and the incoming administration have said they want the situation resolved by his 20 January inauguration.
“We are trying to coordinate with them our efforts, and all of us, we agree, and we are hoping to get over this situation before the president comes to the office,” he said.
The prime minister said the Trump team “want this to be resolved now – today even”.
Mr al Thani also defended Hamas being allowed to continue operating its political office from Doha, Qatar’s capital.
He stressed it was set up “with full transparency and coordination, and at the request of the US and Israel at that time to have this as to be used as a negotiation platform”.
He said multiple ceasefires had been brokered through the office since 2014.
“There are tons of situations where we have prevented an escalation from the beginning in order not to put ourselves in a situation like what we ended up with on 7 October,” he said.
The prime minister added: “There will be always be criticism, a lot of parties who will not like this kind of policy, yes, but it’s needed.”
A man and child on the site of an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on 4 December. Pic Reuters
A building hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, on 28 November. Pic: Reuters
Negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire have so far proved unsuccessful, with more than 44,500 Palestinians killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas after the group killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages in its October 2023 terror attack.
About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza – but at least a third are believed to be dead.
On Monday, Donald Trump said there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released before he re-enters the White House.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,” he wrote on his Truth Social site.
Speaking about what Mr Trump’s re-election means for the Middle East – including relations with Iran – the Qatari prime minister said there were “a lot of risks” but “plenty of opportunities”.
“I hope that everyone sees these opportunities,” he added.
Read more:
Qatar gets gift of state visit but questions remain over rights
Qatar threatens to suspend mediation rule in Gaza talks
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
King hosts Qatari ruler at state banquet
Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, is currently in the UK for a state visit and a lavish banquet was held in his honour at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
The Gulf state’s prime minister told Sky News the trip was a “celebration” of long-standing links between Britain and Qatar – and that it was especially welcome as loyalty was “in short supply in the world”.
He also addressed criticism of Qatar’s human rights record, with some urging Sir Keir Starmer to raise the issue during the visit.
Campaigners have frequently accused it of abuses against migrant workers, curtailing freedom of expression, and discrimination against women and LGBTQ people.
Mr al Thani said the wealthy Gulf state was doing its best to address issues.
“It’s unfortunate sometimes when we see all this criticism in human rights or so-called human rights records in Qatar,” he said.
“We are not saying that we are a perfect nation or a perfect country, but we are a country that when we see there is something wrong, we acknowledge the facts that these are wrong things, and we are trying to do our best according to our systems and our customs, to modify it and to reform it.”
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the latest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the latest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike