Trump aides told Qatar that president-elect wants hostage deal before Jan. 20 — PM

Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani says that Donald Trump’s advisers have told him that the US president-elect wants a hostage deal reached before he enters office on January 20.

Al Thani makes the revelation during an interview with Sky News when asked about Trump’s Monday warning that there will be “all hell to pay” if the hostages aren’t returned by his inauguration.

“Such a statement is expected, and we hope that it will work and will be delivered to both parties,” the Qatari premier says.

“We had heard this from his team… that they want this (hostage deal) to be resolved now — today, even,” Al Thani says.

“We are hoping to get over the situation before the president comes to the office because we have priorities to stabilize the situation in Gaza… and restore regional security,” he adds.

Yesterday, though, Qatar’s foreign ministry claimed that the pause Doha instituted in its mediation efforts late last month was still in place. The announcement appeared to contradict remarks made last week by US President Joe Biden who said Qatar along with Egypt and Turkey would be launching a new push for a hostage deal.

Last week, Republican Sen. Linsey Graham similarly told Axios that Trump wants a hostage deal secured before he returns to the White House.

The Times of Israel revealed in October that Trump himself passed along this message to Netanyahu when they met over the summer at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort.