With talks for one more deal dragging on, Qatar remains to be the primary facilitator for negotiations.
Over time, the energy-rich state has leveraged its intensive diplomatic relationships — together with with militant teams akin to Hamas and the Taliban, and U.S. adversaries together with Russia — to barter delicate points throughout worldwide conflicts. Qatar has bristled at latest criticism, together with from Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), that it has not finished sufficient to push Hamas towards a deal, arguing that it stays impartial. The nation mentioned this week that it might reevaluate its function as a mediator, though no change appeared imminent.
Right here’s what to learn about Qatar’s function as a regional mediator.
How has Qatar been concerned?
Qatar was integral in facilitating the negotiations for the November deal for a pause in combating and, earlier than that, helped safe the discharge of two American hostages for what Hamas mentioned had been “humanitarian causes.”
The nation has been concerned in subsequent talks, with dozens of hostages nonetheless believed to be held in Gaza. The negotiations have in latest months bounced between Paris, Doha and Cairo. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and overseas affairs minister, has participated within the dealings alongside intelligence officers from Israel, the USA and Egypt.
Why does Qatar have sway?
Qatar, a powerful supporter of the Palestinians in addition to regional Islamist actions, has maintained ties with Hamas going again practically 20 years. Previously, Qatar tried to mediate disputes between Hamas and the rival Palestinian Fatah motion within the West Financial institution. In 2012, Qatar’s then-emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, grew to become the primary head of state to go to Hamas-controlled Gaza, pledging tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in assist. Hamas leaders have been hosted in Doha, Qatar’s capital, for years.
Qatar has additionally stored low-level relations with Israel at a time when different Persian Gulf nations had been firmly against any outreach. Within the Nineteen Nineties, Qatar allowed an Israeli commerce workplace because the nation’s solely outpost within the gulf.
After taking up from his father, the present emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has declined to comply with a few of Qatar’s neighbors in totally normalizing relations with Israel. Qatari officers mentioned that such a step would solely comply with peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
What are Qatar’s different mediation initiatives?
A gas-rich state of two.7 million folks, Qatar has tried to exert affect in regional and world affairs, together with via mediation efforts that started in earnest within the mid-2000s, in line with Sultan Barakat, a professor on the Qatar Basis’s Hamad Bin Khalifa College. Barakat wrote a 2014 paper about these initiatives, together with early makes an attempt to mediate in Yemen, Lebanon, Sudan, and between Israel and Hamas.
“Previous to 2011, these efforts produced blended outcomes,” he wrote. Starting that 12 months, as pro-democracy protests unfold across the Center East, Qatar was much less observed for its diplomacy and extra intently related to assist for the Arab Spring uprisings in addition to Islamist teams concerned within the revolts. These interventions earned Qatar the ire of regional powers, together with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Tensions with neighbors got here to a head in 2017. Saudi Arabia and others — angered by Doha’s ties with militant teams and Iran and by its sponsorship of the Al Jazeera information channel — imposed a years-long financial blockade of Qatar, reducing hyperlinks by land, sea and air.
Qatar, which has maintained relations with Afghanistan’s hard-line Taliban motion for years, performed a key function serving to the USA evacuate its residents and allies throughout the chaotic American withdrawal from the nation in 2021. In September 2023, Qatar helped safe the discharge of 5 Individuals held by Iran.
What are the advantages and dangers to Qatar?
The diplomatic forays are a part of a bundle of “mushy energy” initiatives Qatar has used to buttress its world standing and distinguish itself from regional rivals, an effort that features internet hosting campuses of American universities and supporting sports activities groups, together with staging the 2022 World Cup.
The mediation — particularly when it advantages the USA — can be used as a guard towards a number of the criticism Qatar has obtained for supporting teams thought of terrorist entities by Western nations.
Qatar this week emphasised that it needs to be seen as a impartial social gathering within the negotiations between Hamas and Israel. “Qatar is just a mediator — we don’t management Israel or Hamas,” Qatar’s embassy in Washington mentioned in a assertion. The remarks got here after Hoyer known as on Qatar to push Hamas to simply accept a deal. In a press release Monday, he inspired Qatar to contemplate “refusing to grant Hamas’ leaders refuge in Doha” as leverage. “If Qatar fails to use this stress, the USA should reevaluate its relationship with Qatar,” he mentioned.
The Qatari Embassy mentioned it was “stunned by his risk,” and mentioned Doha’s “mediation function exists solely as a result of we had been requested by the USA in 2012 to play this function since, regrettably, Israel and Hamas refuse to talk to one another immediately.” The Washington Submit reported in October that the USA and Qatar had agreed to revisit Qatari relations with Hamas after the hostage disaster, nevertheless it was unclear whether or not the reassessment would come with the expulsion of Hamas leaders from Doha. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators final month known as for Qatar to cease internet hosting Hamas’s political workplace in Doha.
Qatar’s Overseas Ministry mentioned in a assertion Wednesday that mischaracterization of its mediation efforts has “necessitated a complete analysis by Qatar of its function.”
