By Afshain Afzal

In a recent development, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf over his shoulders gave a call for a peace dialogue to the world leaders; "Listen to our call for dialogue... No one loses from a just peace." He was addressing a mammoth Turkish and Palestinian assembly in Istanbul on Saturday, 28 October 2023. Earlier, during the visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to Saudi Arabia and his meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman it was decided not to allow the forced displacement of Palestinians to bring new disasters. During the visit of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to Saudi Arabia on 19 October and a meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince stress on peace efforts and humanitarian relief was discussed.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has sent her Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman to Washington for a Monday meetings with senior Biden administration. This time the Arab states would respond unprecedentedly over any misadventure like Israeli or allies’ invasion of Gaza. Earlier, United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. As per some of the Palestinian leaders in Gaza and Syria, "we have rejected Qatar-mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas, “We cannot allow anyone having a past record of traitors and those expelled Palestinians operating from Qatar as our representatives on the negotiation table.”

The Israeli self-proclaimed Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has announced that it is withdrawing its diplomatic staff from Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza. It is strange that by 19 October 2023, all Israeli diplomats had already left the country so which diplomats Israelis were announcing to call back? As per some isolated reports, Israeli intelligence, without naming Turkey, has forecasted that Israel's military assets in Iranian – Azerbaijan border at Araks that aimed to arm the Iranian or Armenians to get back the enclave’s control back to Armenian military and her arsenal in Iraq to engage new war theaters in Syria, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

No doubt, despite the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani appealing statement questioning the security of the region and the world giving Israel “an unconditional green light and free license to kill” and “ignoring the reality of occupation, siege and settlement,” peace efforts under the Qatari leadership is likely to be controversial. Major elements in the Palestinian leadership are skeptical about Qatar’s role as a mediator. It is high time to allow peace dialogue between Hamas and Israel, with Turkey and Saudi Arabia as chief mediators and negotiators. There is no doubt, that we witnessed worse genocide of orthodox Muslims of Palestine, especially Hamas as well as war crimes by the Israeli intelligence and defense forces but let us start a dialogue to win the peace.