Renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza

CGTN Europe spoke to Yossi Mekelberg, Senior Consulting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House

Transcript

00:00Let's get some more insight on all of this with Yossi Mekkelberg, a senior consulting fellow

00:04for the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, a think tank here in London.

00:09Thank you very much indeed. Welcome back, Yossi, to CGTN. First of all, I just want to ask you

00:13a bit about what Jonathan was just telling us about something moving, something appears to be

00:18happening towards a ceasefire. But all of this, of course, overshadowed by this potential trial

00:25of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me.

00:31So an interesting development during the Israel-Iran war. It created some space for 12 days for

00:41behind-the-scenes negotiation, very much pushed by Qatar and the United States. And there is

00:48some progress on this front. But the question is whether Israel, Hamas, and then the region

00:58would agree to all the details. So one of them is, for instance, exiling Hamas' leadership,

01:06ending the war. Well, we know that right-wing members within the Israeli coalition are against

01:13Afghanistan. There is an aspect that the United States is actually pushing to allow Gazans that

01:20want to leave Gaza will be allowed to go to other countries. But what countries are ready

01:26to absorb them unless there are also programs on the Palestinian issue as a whole, the Palestinian

01:32state. And as you rightly say, in the midst of all of it, we know that Netanyahu, first and

01:38foremost, look about his personal survival and making sure that his trial is postponed almost

01:44indefinitely. And you mentioned the regional picture here. I just want to ask you about Qatar,

01:50which has positioned itself as a key mediator. How effective has Doha been in brokering talks and

01:56what kind of leverage does it have? I think it's interesting to look at the role of Qatar generally

02:01now in international negotiations, whether it's in Ukraine, in Africa and in other places.

02:09And definitely it's the country that has influence on Hamas. It hosts some of the members for the

02:17leadership of Hamas and it sets the leverage as a result of it. Also as a result of what happened

02:22with the war in Iran, the ties between the United States and Qatar actually have been strengthened.

02:28Almost there was the theater of allowing Iran to attack a military base in Qatar as kind of the

02:36last firing shot in the war. So I think there is close coordination. Qatar is playing a very important

02:44role in it. And just going back to the top part of our coverage concerning Rafael Grossi's comments

02:52about Iran's nuclear capabilities, that they may seem to be in a better shape than Israel and the U.S.

02:58would have us think after their attacks on the country. Is that credible, do you think?

03:03I think, I mean, he is the expert on the issue. He's been inspecting this and following this for years.

03:11It's a very interesting development because we get all sorts of contradictory, conflicting evidence.

03:17We had last week a report by the Pentagon that actually agrees with Mr. Grossi.

03:23The United States and Israel, Trump talked about the complete destruction of the nuclear program,

03:33definitely in Fardo. I think what we need to look is the house for evidence what really happened,

03:39what's left of the centrifuges on the more than 400 kilograms of enriched uranium to up to 60 percent.

03:47And then we can make a long-term judgment whether the Iranian nuclear program has been degraded

03:55or all these 12 days' war, including the United States, dropping one of its most sophisticated

04:01weapons was basically for nothing.

04:05Many thanks indeed for sharing your thoughts with us today, Yossi.

04:08That's Yossi Mekkelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House.