On January 17, 2025, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Aal Thani told Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) that the recently-signed hostage release and ceasefire agreement signed between Israel and Hamas “is the same agreement that we worked to formulate and was confirmed by the parties in December 2023.” On the subject of Israel’s military advance into southern Syria following the recent toppling of Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad regime, he said that Israel’s incursion into Syria, destruction of Syrian military arsenals and assets, and creation of a buffer zone in southern Syria is “reckless” and “unacceptable.” He also said that he has spoken with HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa (also known by his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani) and that he told him that Israel must withdraw, that Israeli military incursions into Syria must not become a “new reality that needs to be negotiated,” and that “things need to go back to how they were” with negotiations being about the Israeli Golan Heights and not about Israel’s current buffer zone, “without making any additional demands.” He added: “Inshallah, this will be resolved as soon as possible.”