BERLIN: Germany on Wednesday called on Qatar to mediate the release of hostages taken during a surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas.
“Various actors in the region, including Qatar, must play an important role, because they have channels that we do not have,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told MPs.
Baerbock’s comments came a day before Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani was set to visit Berlin for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday.
Qatar, which has hosted a Hamas political office for more than a decade, has provided millions of dollars in financial aid to Gaza and previously brokered deals between Israel and the Hamas group.
On Tuesday, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed Al-Ansari however said it was too soon to start arranging talks on a potential prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.
The Gulf state was a “financier of Hamas”, Germany’s Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck told journalists Wednesday.
As such, Qatar would also have contacts that “Germany and Israel do not have”, Habeck said.
“It would be important for Qatar to exert its influence on Hamas so that this does not happen again or can be atoned for,” he said.
Habeck rejected suggestions that Germany was compromised by its dependence on Qatar for its gas supplies.
Germany has turned to the emirate, among others, to replace gas supplies from Russia, which have been halted in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Qatar is not currently Germany’s biggest energy supplier,” Habeck said.
“There are supply contracts with Qatar but nothing comparable to the one we had with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
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