Someday, it was US secretary of state Antony Blinken flying into Qatar to safe Doha’s assist in releasing hostages seized by Hamas and stopping the militant group’s battle with Israel escalating right into a regional battle.
The following, it was Iran’s high diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian touching down within the Gulf state condemning Israel and warning that its bombardment of Gaza risked broadening the battle. Amirabdollahian then met Ismail Haniyeh, the Doha-based political chief of Hamas, and lauded the “Palestinian victory”, referring to the militant group’s October 7 attack that triggered the battle.
The visits this month, coupled with a flurry of telephone calls with world leaders, underlined how Qatar is as soon as extra on the diplomatic entrance strains of a world disaster — a task that has introduced the gas-rich state each reward and scrutiny.
Within the weeks since Hamas’s lethal assault triggered battle with Israel, western leaders have turned to Qatar as their foremost interlocutor to safe the discharge of the greater than 200 folks, together with US and European residents, captured by the militant group.
Thus far, its efforts have been profitable. Hamas released four civilian hostages by means of Qatar’s mediation, incomes it the gratitude of US President Joe Biden. Doha is now working to dealer a deal to safe the liberty of about 50 others, mentioned folks briefed on the talks.
Qatar stands out as a result of it has hosted Hamas’s political workplace since 2012, has poured lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of help into Gaza and is likely one of the few states that has good relations with the US and Iran.
However given the size of the Hamas atrocities on October 7 and the horror that the mass assault on Israel triggered in western capitals, Qatar can also be going through questions on its willingness to host the political management of the Islamist group in Doha.
“It’s a double-edged sword and the Qataris must have the suitable message, as a result of though the Individuals have expressed gratitude and so they’re incomes brownie factors from the US, their picture is getting bruised,” mentioned Mehran Kamrava, professor of presidency at Georgetown College Qatar.
Doha has spent the previous decade carving out a task as a mediator, in search of to make use of its willingness to speak to these others are reluctant to and undertaking itself as a world “downside solver”.
Partially this is a sign of the ambitions of the rich state that has lengthy sought to punch above its weight. However Qatar additionally views its diplomatic efforts as integral to its safety technique, conscious of its vulnerabilities in a unstable area surrounded by bigger neighbours, and the necessity to guarantee its relevance to the US and different powers.
It’s a technique that has led Doha to change into concerned in myriad negotiations. Qatar has hosted an workplace of the Taliban since 2013 and was important to the evacuation of Afghans who labored for the US and coalition entities, in addition to others prone to reprisals after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan two years in the past. This month, it brokered a deal to reunite 4 Ukrainian kids with their households after they have been separated throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In September, Qatar was instrumental in a prisoner alternate deal between the US and Iran that led to Washington unfreezing $6bn of Tehran’s oil cash. The funds have been transferred to accounts in Doha the place it’s being monitored to make sure it is just used for non-sanctioned items.
It has additionally facilitated secret talks between the Biden administration and Nicolás Maduro within the hope of mediating an settlement underneath which Venezuela’s president would agree to carry free and honest elections and launch political prisoners in return for US sanctions aid, an individual briefed on the talks mentioned.
Biden final 12 months designated the Gulf state, which additionally hosts the US’s largest navy base within the area, a serious non-Nato ally.
However the opprobrium triggered by Hamas’s assault, and outrage within the Muslim world over the retaliatory bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza, has thrust Qatar right into a extremely charged and polarising disaster.
The Hamas-led assault killed greater than 1,400 folks, in keeping with Israeli officers. Greater than 6,500 folks have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive, in keeping with well being officers within the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave.
“The Israel query is rather more unstable and has lots of resonance within the American public and political area,” mentioned Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar on the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “Relations with the Biden administration are glorious and there’s been large appreciation of what Qatar has been doing. That cuts them some slack and understanding within the present scenario, however definitely it kind of relies upon how issues flip.”
Qatar has lengthy supported the Palestinian trigger. However Doha has additionally been accused by neighbours prior to now of sponsoring and financing Islamist teams throughout the area. This was a part of the justification utilized by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2017 after they led a greater than three-year regional embargo on Qatar. Doha denied the allegations.
Qatari officers say the state doesn’t sponsor or fund Hamas, however agreed to host the political workplace after the US requested it open a channel with the group greater than a decade in the past. Hamas’s political leaders have been beforehand primarily based in Damascus, however left as a civil battle engulfed Syria.
A Qatari official says Washington first requested Doha to open oblique channels in 2006, after Hamas gained Palestinian elections. The next 12 months, the militant group took management of the strip after an inside battle with Fatah, a rival Palestinian faction.
Doha has additionally been one of many foremost donors to Gaza over the previous decade, spending $10mn a month to offer assist to the hemmed-in strip’s poorest 100,000 households and to pay civil servants, resembling academics and docs. It additionally offers funding to provide electrical energy to the strip.
“[Gazans] aren’t capable of construct up a robust home financial system, so what’s the different?” the Qatari official mentioned.
The assist was co-ordinated by means of UN businesses and Israel, the official added, with the Israeli authorities having “full oversight” over the help.
Qatar has no formal relations with Israel, but it surely did open an Israeli commerce workplace in Doha, which was closed after the 2008/09 battle between Israel and Hamas.
“With all mediation we’re a part of, dialogue shouldn’t be confused with endorsement,” the official mentioned. “We speak to completely different teams as a result of we consider that open channels of communication are the one strategy to construct belief and resolve variations. The choice is extra struggling on all sides.”
Kamrava described Qatar’s relationship with Hamas as “not ideological however strategic”.
“For those who’re the Individuals, would you like Hamas to be in Qatar or do you favor them to be in Damascus and Tehran and be beholden to these sorts of actors,” Kamrava mentioned.
Criticism of Qatar’s hyperlinks to Hamas has been restricted. Some US lawmakers and rightwing foyer teams have referred to as for Hamas’s workplace in Doha to be shut.
Hours earlier than Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Qatari emir, landed in Berlin 4 days after the Hamas assault, Germany’s overseas minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned Qatar had a duty to “clearly stand as much as this most brutal terror”. The FDP, a part of Germany’s coalition authorities, later referred to as for final 12 months’s fuel deal concluded with Qatar to “instantly be placed on ice”.
But different western governments have welcomed Qatar’s position. And France, Italy and the Netherlands have all signed long-term agreements for Qatar to provide liquefied pure fuel for the reason that October 7 assault.
Even Israel’s nationwide safety adviser this week praised Doha’s efforts to safe the discharge of the hostages. “Qatar’s diplomatic efforts are essential at the moment,” Tzachi Hanegbi mentioned in a social media submit.
The query, analysts say, is whether or not stress builds on Qatar over time regarding its ties to Hamas. “You speak to some Qataris and so they say ‘it doesn’t matter what we do, we get criticised, and so let’s not care, let’s do the suitable factor, whatever the value’,” Kamrava mentioned. “Then there are some who see it as an actual problem [for Qatar].”
Further reporting by Sam Jones in Berlin
