QATAR-ISRAEL CONTACTS ON GAZA AID GO NOWHERE

C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000033 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL QA IS SUBJECT: QATAR-ISRAEL CONTACTS ON GAZA AID GO NOWHERE Classified By: Ambassador Joseph LeBaron, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). -------------- (C) KEY POINTS -------------- -- Qatar's Prime Minister asked Israeli Foreign Minister Livni in early January for the GOI to permit delivery of Qatari relief supplies via Ben Gurion Airport. -- Israel would only agree if no personnel accompanied the shipment, a condition the GOQ rejected. -------------- (C) COMMENT -------------- -- Even during this low-point in Israel's relations with the Arab world, the Qataris apparently still prefer to coordinate Gaza aid shipments with Israel rather than with Egypt. -- This preference likely speaks more to the poor state of Qatar-Egypt relations than to any particular Qatari desire to deal with Israel. End Key Points and Comment. ¶1. (C) Israeli Trade Representative in Qatar, Roi Rosenblit, told DCM Ratney January 13 that during the last telephone conversation between Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani and Israeli Foreign Minister Livni earlier in January, Shaykh Hamad asked Israel to permit two planeloads of relief supplies to land at Ben Gurion Airport and be transferred overland to Gaza. Livni, according to Rosenblit, offered to look into the feasibility of doing this. The GOI took over a week to respond; by that point, the air campaign in Gaza had transitioned to a ground campaign and the GOI would only agree to facilitate movement of the cargo without any accompanying Qatari personnel. The Qataris would not agree to this condition, and Rosenblit understood that the supplies were later shipped via Egypt. ¶2. (C) Rosenblit said that if the shipment did take place, neither the Qatar Red Crescent nor any other quasi-governmental group would have managed it. Responsibility for this (abortive) operation was delegated personally to Qatar's de facto Interior Minister, Sheikh Abdulla bin Nasser Al Thani. That might explain, Rosenblit offered, rumors that the Qataris were planning to send search and rescue teams to Gaza, since such operations would fall under Sheikh Abdulla's purview. Sheikh Abdulla told the Ambassador January 12 that no such plan was in the works, contradicting what working-level contacts had earlier told Embassy Doha's Office of Military Cooperation. LeBaron