One day, it was US secretary of state Antony Blinken flying into Qatar to secure Doha’s support in releasing hostages seized by Hamas and preventing the militant group’s war with Israel escalating into a regional conflict.
The next, it was Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian touching down in the Gulf state condemning Israel and warning that its bombardment of Gaza risked broadening the conflict. Amirabdollahian then met Ismail Haniyeh, the Doha-based political leader of Hamas, and lauded the “Palestinian victory”, referring to the militant group’s October 7 attack that triggered the war.
The visits this month, coupled with a flurry of phone calls with world leaders, underlined how Qatar is once more on the diplomatic front lines of an international crisis — a role that has brought the gas-rich state both praise and scrutiny.
In the weeks since Hamas’s deadly assault triggered war with Israel, western leaders have turned to Qatar as their main interlocutor to secure the release of the more than 200 people, including US and European citizens, captured by the militant group.
So far, its efforts have been successful. Hamas released four civilian hostages through Qatar’s mediation, earning it the gratitude of US President Joe Biden. Doha is now working to broker a deal to secure the freedom of about 50 others, said people briefed on the talks.
Qatar stands out because it has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012, has poured hundreds of millions of dollars of aid into Gaza and is one of the few states that has good relations with the US and Iran.
But given the scale of the Hamas atrocities on October 7 and the horror that the mass assault on Israel triggered in western capitals, Qatar is also facing questions about its willingness to host the political leadership of the Islamist group in Doha.
“It’s a double-edged sword and the Qataris need to have the right message, because although the Americans have expressed gratitude and they’re earning brownie points from the US, their image is getting bruised,” said Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar.
Doha has spent the past decade carving out a role as a mediator, seeking to use its willingness to talk to those others are reluctant to and project itself as an international “problem solver”.
In part this is an indication of the ambitions of the wealthy state that has long sought to punch above its weight. But Qatar also views its diplomatic efforts as integral to its security strategy, aware of its vulnerabilities in a volatile region surrounded by larger neighbours, and the need to ensure its relevance to the US and other powers.
It is a strategy that has led Doha to become involved in myriad negotiations. Qatar has hosted an office of the Taliban since 2013 and was vital to the evacuation of Afghans who worked for the US and coalition entities, as well as others at risk of reprisals after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago. This month, it brokered a deal to reunite four Ukrainian children with their families after they were separated during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In September, Qatar was instrumental in a prisoner exchange deal between the US and Iran that led to Washington unfreezing $6bn of Tehran’s oil money. The funds were transferred to accounts in Doha where it is being monitored to ensure it is only used for non-sanctioned goods.
It has also facilitated secret talks between the Biden administration and Nicolás Maduro in the hope of mediating an agreement under which Venezuela’s president would agree to hold free and fair elections and release political prisoners in return for US sanctions relief, a person briefed on the talks said.
Biden last year designated the Gulf state, which also hosts the US’s biggest military base in the region, a major non-Nato ally.
But the opprobrium triggered by Hamas’s attack, and outrage in the Muslim world over the retaliatory bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza, has thrust Qatar into a highly charged and polarising crisis.
The Hamas-led assault killed more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials. More than 6,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave.
“The Israel question is much more volatile and has a lot of resonance in the American public and political arena,” said Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “Relations with the Biden administration are excellent and there’s been huge appreciation of what Qatar has been doing. That cuts them some slack and understanding in the current situation, but certainly it sort of depends how things turn.”
Qatar has long supported the Palestinian cause. But Doha has also been accused by neighbours in the past of sponsoring and financing Islamist groups across the region. This was part of the justification used by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2017 when they led a more than three-year regional embargo on Qatar. Doha denied the allegations.
Qatari officials say the state does not sponsor or fund Hamas, but agreed to host the political office after the US requested it open a channel with the group more than a decade ago. Hamas’s political leaders were previously based in Damascus, but left as a civil war engulfed Syria.
A Qatari official says Washington first asked Doha to open indirect channels in 2006, after Hamas won Palestinian elections. The following year, the militant group took control of the strip after an internal conflict with Fatah, a rival Palestinian faction.
Doha has also been one of the main donors to Gaza over the past decade, spending $10mn a month to provide support to the hemmed-in strip’s poorest 100,000 families and to pay civil servants, such as teachers and doctors. It also provides funding to supply electricity to the strip.
“[Gazans] aren’t able to build up a strong domestic economy, so what is the alternative?” the Qatari official said.
The support was co-ordinated through UN agencies and Israel, the official added, with the Israeli government having “complete oversight” over the aid.
Qatar has no formal relations with Israel, but it did open an Israeli trade office in Doha, which was closed after the 2008/09 war between Israel and Hamas.
“With all mediation we’re part of, dialogue shouldn’t be confused with endorsement,” the official said. “We talk to different groups because we believe that open channels of communication are the only way to build trust and resolve differences. The alternative is more suffering on all sides.”
Kamrava described Qatar’s relationship with Hamas as “not ideological but strategic”.
“If you’re the Americans, do you want Hamas to be in Qatar or do you prefer them to be in Damascus and Tehran and be beholden to those kinds of actors,” Kamrava said.
Criticism of Qatar’s links to Hamas has been limited. Some US lawmakers and rightwing lobby groups have called for Hamas’s office in Doha to be shut.
Hours before Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Qatari emir, landed in Berlin four days after the Hamas attack, Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Qatar had a responsibility to “clearly stand up to this most brutal terror”. The FDP, part of Germany’s coalition government, later called for last year’s gas deal concluded with Qatar to “immediately be put on ice”.
Yet other western governments have welcomed Qatar’s role. And France, Italy and the Netherlands have all signed long-term agreements for Qatar to supply liquefied natural gas since the October 7 attack.
Even Israel’s national security adviser this week praised Doha’s efforts to secure the release of the hostages. “Qatar’s diplomatic efforts are crucial at this time,” Tzachi Hanegbi said in a social media post.
The question, analysts say, is whether pressure builds on Qatar over time concerning its ties to Hamas. “You talk to some Qataris and they say ‘no matter what we do, we get criticised, and so let’s not care, let’s do the right thing, regardless of the cost’,” Kamrava said. “Then there are some who see it as a real challenge [for Qatar].”
Additional reporting by Sam Jones in Berlin
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