Gaza war spotlights Qatar's role as a regional mediator

Tensions are sky-high in the Middle East following Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel one month ago. Traumatised by ‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’, which resulted in roughly 1,400 of its citizens being killed, Israel is intent on revenge.

Tel Aviv’s brutal aerial bombing campaign, ground offensive, and “complete siege” of Gaza have subjected the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave to humanitarian nightmares that worsen by the minute, with 10,000 Palestinians killed so far, including over 4,000 children.

Meanwhile, anger across the wider Arab-Islamic world is intensifying, with much of it directed at the United States.

"Doha has responded to the past month of violence by attempting to cool tensions. The Gulf country's leadership is trying to open up more space for dialogue while condemning Israeli war crimes"

Like the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member-states, Qatar is extremely concerned about the potential for this crisis to escalate and spill into other parts of the Middle East and perhaps beyond.

Doha has responded to the past month of violence by attempting to cool tensions. The Gulf country’s leadership is trying to open up more space for dialogue while condemning Israeli war crimes.

Speaking before his country’s Shura council on 24 October, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani addressed the situation in Gaza for the first time since Hamas waged ‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’.

The Qatari head of state called on the international community to deny the Israelis “unrestricted authorisation to kill” Palestinians.

Qatar has also worked to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. So far, Qatari and Egyptian mediation has led to the successful release of four hostages and the evacuation of individuals in Gaza who have foreign passports and dozens of Palestinians with dire medical conditions.

Six days after Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Qatar amid his Middle East tour.

“The United States and Qatar share the goal of preventing this conflict from spreading,” said Washington’s top diplomat at a joint press conference with his Qatari counterpart.

“We discussed in detail our efforts to prevent any actor - state or non-state - from creating a new front in this conflict. We’re also working intensively together to secure the release of hostages, including American citizens being held by Hamas in Gaza. I’m grateful for the urgency that Qatar is bringing to this effort.”

A long-term commitment to Palestinians

For many years, Qatar has been raising awareness of the Palestinian question. Doha has long urged the international community to work together to solve it in accordance with international law and countless UN General Assembly resolutions.

Qatari officials believe that the dehumanisation and brutalisation of Palestinians by Israel and its harsh military occupation need to end, and a two-state solution based on the 1949-67 lines must be the basis for doing so.

Although Doha is closely aligned with Washington and other Western capitals on many issues, the status of Hamas is one where there is disagreement.

"For many years the Qataris have served as a diplomatic bridge between various actors in the region, which, for political reasons, would not be able to easily engage each other in direct talks"

“People in the Middle East understand that the Palestinians have been under occupation, and they have been subjected to Israeli harsh treatment [...] where Israel has basically refused to move ahead with the two-state solution and where also Israel is not accepting to even give a one-state solution to the Palestinians, basically making an apartheid state,” said Dr Abdullah Baabood, an Omani scholar and visiting professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, in an interview with The New Arab.

Following Hamas’ attack, Qatar’s foreign ministry called on both sides to exercise restraint and for the international community not to allow Israel to launch a disproportionate war against Palestinian civilians, while saying Israel was responsible for the escalation of violence.

“However, Qatar tried to help with the crisis by talking to both sides, trying to calm things down at the beginning of the crisis, and trying to stop it from further escalating because of its unique position that it has with Hamas,” added Dr Baabood.

Doha's support for a two-state solution

After the United Arab Emirates announced its normalisation with Israel in August 2020, Qatar - unlike Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco - did not follow suit.

Doha still firmly supports the 2002 Saudi-proposed Arab Peace Initiative, which means that Qatar believes normalisation with Israel must happen only after (as opposed to before) the implementation of the internationally supported two-state solution.

Nonetheless, despite having never formalised relations with Tel Aviv, there has been informal engagement between Qatar and Israel going back at least to the 1990s.

Such informal links to Israel combined with Doha’s alliance with the US and relationship with Hamas have enabled Qatar to play a constructive intermediary role.

For many years the Qataris have served as a diplomatic bridge between various actors in the region, which, for political reasons, would not be able to easily engage each other in direct talks.

This has been evident in many instances, including the West’s engagement with the Taliban, which manifested in the Doha Agreement of 2020, the September 2023 Iran-US prisoner swap, as well as talks in Qatar between factions involved in conflicts in Lebanon and Sudan during the 2000s.

It is no secret that Hamas has a political office in Doha, with the group’s exiled leadership moved to Doha after leaving Damascus in 2012 following Hamas’ falling out with the Syrian regime at the Arab Spring’s outset.

Many neo-conservative voices in Washington have lashed out at Qatar for its relationship with the Palestinian group. Yet, an important fact to bear in mind is that it was the US which requested the opening of this Hamas office in the gas-rich emirate.

Qatar has long used Hamas’ status in Doha as a means to serve as an intermediary between the US and Israel, on one side, and Hamas, on the other.

Through Qatari backchannels, Hamas and Israel agreed to ceasefires which ended their previous armed conflicts in 2014, 2021, and 2022.

"Like the other Gulf Cooperation Council member-states, Qatar is extremely concerned about the potential for this crisis to escalate and spill into other parts of the Middle East and perhaps beyond"

A diplomatic solution

At the heart of it, Doha does not believe that there is a military solution to the Palestinian issue and wants to see different players in the region and beyond engage Hamas diplomatically regardless of their perspective on the organisation.

“Qatar has maintained a status where it has kept windows for dialogue open for all these powers and these entities,” Dr Baabood told TNA.

“There is a need for discussions. Through that many of these conflicts can be resolved. As we’ve seen with the Taliban, where Qatar played a very important role in Afghanistan helping the US to withdraw and helping US prisoners, etc.,” he added.

“The same thing also applies to Iran, where Qatar has a good working relationship with Iran and this relationship has been very useful to the US and other Western allies in de-escalating and also in the prisoner exchange in which Qatar played a very important role.”

Ultimately, certain voices and lobbying groups will continue to criticise Qatar for hosting Hamas’ exiled political leadership. But there is no denying that Doha’s intermediary role has proven useful in this crisis, as it has in previous conflicts between Hamas and Israel.

High-ranking officials in both the US and Israel have also praised Qatar for its diplomatic achievements in relation to the crisis since 7 October.

Dr Baabood told TNA that it is important for policymakers and diplomats to understand that this conflict did not start with Hamas’ 7 October attack.

Indeed, this crisis dates back many decades and it’s up to the international community to do the necessary hard work to push the parties toward, first, agreeing to a ceasefire, second, allowing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and third, doing the necessary hard work to resolve this conflict in accordance with international law.

“I think the world should wake up and try to find a long-lasting solution because it’s not just about destroying Hamas like people are calling for. Hamas is an ideology, and it can’t be destroyed,” Dr Baabood said.

“It’s about how the whole world can work together to find a long-lasting solution to this lingering and painful conflict.”

Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO of Gulf State Analytics.

Follow him on Twitter: @GiorgioCafiero