QATAR’S ROLE AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISRAEL IS CRUCIAL

Acting as a back channel mediator for many US administrations has enabled Qatar to play a key role on the global stage.

For such a small country, Qatar packs a big geopolitical punch. Jutting out from the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf, this tiny sovereign state with just 300,000 citizens and 2.7 million expats, has the highest per capita income on the planet, due to its huge oil and natural gas reserves, the world’s third largest. Despite its small size, Qatar’s influence spreads far and wide. During the Arab Spring, the wave of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, Qatar supported several rebel groups both financially and through its globally expanding media group, Al Jazeera. It therefore came as little surprise that when the Hamas political leaders decided to leave Syria in 2012, due to the unrest in their long-term ally, Qatar was their destination of choice.

Not only did Qatar’s capital Doha provide a safe haven for Hamas leaders, it also helped pay the salaries of tens of thousands of Palestinian teachers, doctors and other public servants in the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli blockade since Hamas wrested control of the territory in 2007. Over the past decade Qatar has sent more than $1 billion to Gaza, sometimes in suitcases stuffed with cash, in other cases as fuel, which the government in Gaza then sold to pay salaries. Qatari officials say that the state does not sponsor or fund Hamas, insisting that its aid to the blockaded strip was coordinated through UN agencies and Israel, with the Israeli government having ‘complete oversight’ of the humanitarian assistance.

Many critics of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argue that he fully approved of these arrangements for his own political purposes. Netanyahu’s plan, they say, was to play off Hamas against the rival Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and perpetuate the rift between the two Palestinian factions in order to avoid engaging in a real peace process and two-state solution, which he detests. Netanyahu’s supporters argue that his government was happy to approve the payments as they helped to keep the status quo in the Gaza Strip and Hamas from escalating attacks on Israel. We all know how that turned out!

It was following a request from Washington in 2011 that Qatar agreed to accept the Hamas leaders. The US wanted to establish indirect lines of communication with the terrorist group, a technique known in the diplomatic world as ‘back channels’. Back channels have long been used by governments to bypass the normal bureaucratic routes in order to communicate with adversaries on sensitive issues. Qatari mediation played a vital role in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in 2014, 2021, and 2022. More recently, last November Doha helped broker an agreement that led to a week-long pause in the current conflict in Gaza during which more than 100 of about 250 hostages seized by Hamas in their attack on 7 October were released. In return, Israel freed 240 women and children held in its prisons, and allowed more aid into besieged Gaza, where Palestinian officials claim that more than 35,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces, mostly women and children. Acting as a back channel mediator for many US administrations has enabled Qatar to play a key role on the global stage, exerting considerable influence across the Middle East while maintaining good relations with a wide range of players.

For over 50 years, the US and Qatar have enjoyed a close partnership. The US has operated military bases in many countries around the Middle East for decades, but its largest by far is in Qatar. The huge Al Udeid Airbase, built in 1996, is where Qatar hosts more than 10,000 US troops. The airbase also serves as the regional headquarters for the US Central Command, and from here the US has launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. President Joe Biden recognised the close relationship between the two countries when he designated Qatar a major NONNATO ally during the visit in 2022 of the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the first Gulf Leader to visit the White House during the Biden administration.

Like several other Arab states during the current conflict in Gaza, Qatar has not publically condemned the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, instead blaming Israeli policies for the escalation of violence.

Qatari officials point to the growing number of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the deadly raids by Israeli Defence Forces into Palestinian cities there and allowing more Israeli hardliners into the sensitive AL Aqsa Mosque compound, known to the Jews as Temple Mount. Unsurprisingly, tensions are rising. In a speech to his country’s consultative Shura Council months after the outbreak of the war, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said ‘‘enough is enough’’, describing Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as ‘‘barbaric’’. However, Israel’s Mossad Intelligence Chief continues to travel to Doha to discuss the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

But the diplomatic scene may be changing. Last Monday, the Financial Times reported that Sheik Mohammed, angered by critical comments from sections of the US Congress, announced during a Doha press conference that his country is in the process of a complete reevaluation of its role of mediator between Israel and Hamas to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza. ‘‘There is exploitation and abuse of the Qatari role’’ he said, adding that Qatar had been the victim of ‘‘point scoring’’ by ‘‘politicians who are trying to conduct election campaigns by slighting the

State of Qatar.’’ He didn’t mention any names, but his comments came soon after US congressman Steny Hoyer claimed on 15 April that Hamas was using Qatar to exact greater concessions from Israel, adding that if Doha failed to apply pressure on the Palestinian militant group, the ‘‘United States must re-evaluate its relationship with Qatar’’. Hoyer was echoing the concerns of Benjamin Netanyahu who has asserted several times that Qatar had failed to apply sufficient leverage on Hamas in the hostage talks, a claim that Doha rejects. Despite this criticism, many see the Qatari prime ministers decision to re-evaluate the country’s role more of a way of highlighting his frustration with some proisraeli Congressmen.

A hint of possible change, however, came on Thursday when AP reported that most of Hamas’ top political officials had left Qatar in the past week and travelled to Turkey, where Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Turkish President Recep Erdogan. Hamas senior spokesman, Khalil al-hayya, later denied that this is a permanent move and confirmed that Hamas wanted Qatar to continue in its capacity as a mediator in the talks. Hamas has had an office in Istanbul since 2011, but it’s unlikely that Turkey will take over the role of mediator from Qatar. Last year, the Turkish leader likened the tactics of Israel’s President Netanyahu to those of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and called Israel a ‘‘terrorist state’’. For years, Erdogan has been an outspoken critic of Israel and at most might be able to only pass messages between the two sides. Israeli negotiators would not accept any attempt at mediation by the Turkish president.

Many key players in the Biden administration laud the substantial value of Hamas’ relationship with Qatar and fear that if the country ended its role, then that would be most harmful for the region. They would have breathed a sigh of relief when Hamas through their Telegram channel last week insisted that ‘‘claims by the mainstream western media of a move out of Qatar were misleading and incorrect.’’ President Erdogan also confirmed last week that Hamas political leaders will stay in Qatar.

All this suggests that the current US administration is unlikely to pressure Doha to sever ties with Hamas or expel its officials, especially as war continues to rage in Gaza without any end in sight. Qatar’s role as mediator between the two sides will be crucial for months or even years to come.