Qatar gets kudos for US-Taliban peace deal
Qatar’s role in clinching a historic US-Taliban accord at the weekend could further strengthen its relationship with ally Washington despite efforts by fellow Gulf Arab states locked in a dispute with Doha to sideline it on the world stage.
The deal, which creates a path for the US to gradually pull out of Afghanistan and opens the way for a potential end to the 18year conflict, was signed after more than a year and a half of talks held mostly in Doha.
“Qatar has been an enormously important partner to get us to this very moment. When we’ve had hiccups in the road they have helped us smooth them out,” US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told reporters after the signing ceremony in Doha on Saturday.
Though peace negotiations between the sides within Afghanistan could drag on for years, the Doha accord allows Trump to claim an important foreign policy success.
“The Qataris have essentially tried to make themselves crucial to the US in being mediators where the Americans need mediators and, of course, post2017 … positioning Qatar that way was very important,” said James Dorsey of S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
In 2017 Trump initially appeared to side with Saudi Arabia and its allies when they severed ties with Qatar over allegations it supports terrorism and is cosying up to regional foe Iran.
Doha denies the charges and says the political, trade and travel embargo imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt since mid-2017 aims to curtail its sovereignty.
Washington, which wants a united Gulf front against Iran, has tried to mediate an end to the dispute that erupted from longsimmering tensions over tiny but wealthy Qatar’s outsize role in the Middle East and its sponsorship of opposing factions in regional conflicts.
The Taliban deal could place Qatar in a position to help de-escalate tensions between Washington and Iran. Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region and shares a giant gas field with Iran, which sided with Doha in the Gulf spat.
“I think now global actors know where to go if they want conflicts resolved in our region,” Qatar assistant foreign minister Lolwah Rashid Al Khater told reporters on Saturday.
I THINK NOW GLOBAL ACTORS KNOW WHERE TO GO IF THEY WANT CONFLICTS RESOLVED IN OUR REGION
Two Western diplomats said Qatar played a vital role when US-Taliban talks broke down.
A Qatari official involved in the process said Doha looked for a “face-saving” way to salvage talks when Trump cancelled a meeting in September with Taliban leaders at Camp David after the group claimed an attack in Kabul that killed a US soldier.
“We thought about two things to do. Number one a hostage release or swap and the second one to work on a reduction in violence,” said Mutlaq Al Qahtani, Qatar’s foreign ministry envoy for counterterrorism and mediation of conflict resolution.
“We thought if we succeeded in those two points we can save the process and bring the parties to the negotiating table again, and that’s what we did in November,” he said.
He was referring to the Taliban’s release of American and Australian professors in November in return for the release of three Taliban commanders. A seven-day reduction in violence preceded Saturday’s signing.