When American officials needed to negotiate with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan, they turned to Qatar.
As Russia continues its campaign in Ukraine, Qatar has become the main facilitator of the little communication that exists between the two sides.
In recent years, this small desert nation has attracted enormous attention largely due to the ostentatious real estate projects it finances with revenue from the world's largest gas field. It is also home to one of the most strategically important US military air bases in the Middle East.
But over the past six months of the war in the Gaza Strip, Qatar's role as a mediator has come under scrutiny.
Doha has had limited success in hammering out a deal to stop the fighting and free Israeli hostages, prompting an avalanche of criticism from U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials.
A new round of ceasefire negotiations in Gaza that began over the weekend had Egypt rather than Qatar in the lead role.
Qatar says it is reassessing its role. Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said during a recent visit to Israel that Qataris expected “more commitment and more seriousness” in negotiations from both sides.
In a phone call Monday to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, President Biden said that both Egypt and Qatar would work to ensure the “full implementation” of any agreement between Hamas and Israel, according to a White House statement.
Biden also urged the Qatari ruler to “make every effort to secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas, as this is now the only obstacle to an immediate ceasefire and relief for the people of Gaza,” while who thanked the emir and his team.” for their tireless efforts to secure the release of all hostages.”
The Hamas negotiating team left Cairo on Monday, according to Egyptian state station Al Qahera News, which cited what it described as a high-level Egyptian source saying the Hamas team would return at an undisclosed time with a written response. to the proposals.
This comes as pressure mounts from some quarters in Congress who oppose the continued presence of Hamas headquarters in Qatar. Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers have told Qatar that if Hamas continues to reject deals offered by mediators, the group does not deserve safe haven in the Qatari capital.
“Qatar's protection and support has led Hamas to believe it can kill and kidnap Americans with impunity,” said Republican Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina and Joni Ernst of Iowa. “This must end now. “We urge the Biden administration to demand that Qatar expel Hamas from Doha immediately.”
Failure to do so, they said in a letter, would lead them to demand that Qatar “be held accountable.”
They echoed an earlier statement by Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who head the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin and Risch also urged Qatar to expel Hamas if the militant group continued to refuse to accept a deal.
Israeli officials also accuse Qatar of being a problematic interlocutor, despite its central role in negotiating a temporary truce in November that led to the release of detainees on both sides.
“Qatar is giving safe haven to Hamas leaders, funding trillions of dollars, buying their ideology in the United States, buying their way around the world,” Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. TV.
At the urging of the Obama administration and Israel in 2012, Qatar agreed to accept Hamas offices in Doha. In 2018, with the blessing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar began providing monthly payments of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas for the daily running of the Gaza Strip, including public sector salaries.
Doha has also taken the lead in other thorny conflicts, hosting negotiations with the Taliban that led to a deal that culminated in the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Because of that role, the Biden administration designated the Persian Gulf emirate as an important non-NATO ally.
“From Qatar's perspective, they are the only ones who have been able to bring the hostages home,” said Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank. He was referring to the negotiated release in November of more than 100 hostages taken by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in exchange for several hundred Palestinians being held in Israeli jails.
But, Elgindy said, Netanyahu's “political optics,” if he has to rely too much on Qatar, could be negative in Israel. Egypt, the first Arab state to have a peace treaty with Israel, could be a more acceptable intermediary, he added.
Egyptian commentators criticize Qatar's close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which Cairo has long sought to eradicate in its country. They argue that Doha's pro-Hamas stance has increased the militant group's intransigence. In a recent interview with Sky News Arabia, Ashraf Abu Al-Hol, editor of the majority state-owned Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, said that the Qatari media's glorification of Hamas's exploits on the Gaza battlefield is ” causing Hamas's military leadership to become stubborn.” in their positions.”
Biden administration officials say they continue to view Qatar as a valued partner in negotiations, including the most urgent current talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. But they have also warned Doha and others that more restrictions could arise in dealing with Hamas, especially if countries do not put pressure on Hamas.
“It can no longer be the same with Hamas, and… any country that may have a relationship with Hamas, influence with Hamas, needs to send a very clear message,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said last week.
The central question, said Salman Shaikh, founder of the peacebuilding organization Shaikh Group and former director of the Brooking Institution's Doha Center, is whether a party could shelter or support one of the parties and still act as a mediator. .
“By that logic, can the United States ever be an effective mediator when it comes to the Middle East?” she asked, referring to Washington's financial and political support for Israel.
“Mediation is a key part of Qatar's foreign policy. Do we want them to act as protagonists or as mediators and facilitators? They have proven to be more effective than any other, at least initially,” Shaikh said.
Other observers say it is irrelevant whether Egypt or Qatar leads the talks.
“The most important problem is the fundamental division between Israel and Hamas. They just don't agree on terms,” said Michael Hanna, U.S. director of the International Crisis Group, which focuses on conflict prevention.
“And that's not going to change, whether or not Qatar is involved, or whether Egypt is playing a more central role as the main interlocutor between the international community and Hamas.”
Bulos reported from Doha and Wilkinson from Washington.
