Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani expressed cautious optimism on Wednesday about reaching a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza, but said it would require "maximum pressure" on all parties to end the fighting.

In an interview with SkyNews in London, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman commented on US President-elect Donald Trump’s statement about his desire to return Israeli detainees in Gaza before he takes office on January 20.

He said: "We are in contact with the next administration, with President Trump's advisors, and we are trying to coordinate our efforts with them, and we all agree, and we hope to reach a solution before President Trump takes office."

He stressed that the priority is to "stabilize the situation in Gaza... We have priorities to restore regional security," adding that the Trump team "wants to resolve this issue now, even today."

He continued: "A statement like this was expected, and we hope that it will succeed, and that the message will reach both parties in the same way, which is that this situation must end."

Asked if Trump had made it clear that he wanted to resolve this (the Gaza war) by the time he took office, the minister said: “Yes, we heard that from his team, at least in the conversations I was part of with them, that he wanted to resolve this now.”



Regarding the ongoing efforts to reach an agreement, he said: “We are doing our best. I do not want to reveal more details. I want to protect this process as much as possible and we hope that there will be no leaks from one party or another, but it is unfortunate to see the bloodshed and all the risks that we are putting even the detainees in. The leaks and all this public news do not help anything, but they score political points for one party or another.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview with Axios on Friday that Trump wants to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange before he takes office on January 20.

Hamas office in Doha

The Qatari prime minister said the Hamas office in Doha was established "with full transparency and coordination, and at the request of the United States and Israel, at the time, to serve as a platform for negotiations."

He said that as a result, more than one ceasefire agreement has been reached since 2014.