Why is Qatar playing mediator between the US and Hamas?

A tiny gas-rich country on the Persian Gulf, Qatar is a close ally of the United States and crucial to its military strategy in the region. At the same time, it is also known to share close ties with Hamas.

This makes Qatar an ideal middleman to facilitate the release of Hamas hostages. But it also brings under the spotlight, the precarious balancing act it has been playing in the region. We explain just where Qatar stands in the Middle East.

Minor oil producer to regional power

In 1971, when British control ended, Qatar was a minor power and oil producer. Thus, “the Khalifa took a conciliatory approach to regional politics … engaging in no provocative foreign entanglements, and concentrating on domestic development,” David B Roberts wrote in ‘Securing the Qatari State’ (2017).

A map of Qatar. (Google Maps screenshot)

This effectively meant that Qatar largely followed Saudi Arabia’s lead on major international matters. But things began to change in the 1990s, due to three main factors.

First was a boom in the Qatari economy on the back of discovery of massive natural gas reserves. Qatar’s reserves have grown more than tenfold in the last 40 years and today, it boasts of the third largest natural gas deposits in the world.

“This hydrocarbon wealth has changed the geopolitical dynamics of the broader Gulf … other Gulf Arab states appear to be irritated that, instead of being still impoverished, Qatar is now empowered,” Simon Henderson, an expert on the Gulf states at The Washington Institute, wrote in 2020.

Second was Qatar’s increasing closeness with the United States. After supporting the US in the Gulf War of 1991, Qatar signed a defence cooperation deal with the US in 1992. This included use by the US military of Al Udeid Air Base in Doha. Hosting some 11,000 American servicemen today, Al Udeid is the largest American base in the Middle East, and provides Doha with a deep sense of security. Amidst Saudi reluctance to allow American boots on its soil and other operational restrictions elsewhere, the free hand given to the US in Al Udeid makes Qatar near-indispensible to the Americans.

Third was the ascension of Sheikh Hamad to the Qatari throne, after he overthrew his father in a bloodless coup in 1995. “Hamad embarked on a quarter of a century-long ploy to boost Qatar’s soft power in the sporting, media, and educational arenas,” Roberts wrote. Perhaps most prominent in this is the role played by Al Jazeera, the state supported media channel, and the single most important Qatari export after gas.

A maverick in the Middle East

Its increased power, made Qatar the maverick of the Middle East, especially the Gulf region. Over the past three decades, it has made efforts to assert its independence in the international arena, not toeing the Saudi line like many of its neighbours do. Below are two examples.

First, Qatar maintains good relations with Iran — it is compelled to, since the two countries share a contiguous natural gas field, the largest in the world, under the Persian Gulf. This is contrary to rest of the Arab world for which Shia Iran has always been the biggest regional threat.

Second, during the Arab Spring, Qatar channelled material, financial, diplomatic, and media-related support to actors ranged against the Syrian, Libyan, and Egyptian governments, often through Islamist organisations. As the ruling class in the Arab world tightened ranks to preserve its position, Qatar once again again took a different, very provocative line.

Qatar also has the reputation of being a safe haven for the Middle East’s dissidents and even terrorists. From offering sanctuary to firebrand Egyptian preacher Yusuf
al-Qaradawi to hosting an official diplomatic office of the Afghan Taliban, Qatari hospitality does not discriminate. Currently, much of Hamas’s top leadership is allegedly residing in Doha.

Thus, in 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt imposed a complete trade and diplomatic embargo against Qatar, citing Doha’s alleged support of terrorism, closeness to Iran, and interference in the internal affairs of other nations.

The embargo was abruptly lifted in 2021, but the mistrust remains.

Qatar and ‘extremist organisations’

During the latest conflict in Gaza, Qatar’s rhetoric against Israel has been harsh. Al Jazeera has provided some of the most critical coverage of Israel’s actions and official statements from Doha have blamed Israel for the escalation.

This is in tune with Qatar’s foreign policy historically. While Qatar established diplomatic relations with Israel in the 1990s, much to the chagrin of the Saudis at the time, it has also offered unwavering support to Palestinians, especially Hamas, which controls Gaza.

“Arab Qataris sympathise with the Palestinians in general, and many share the strict adherence to Islam represented in the Muslim Brotherhood ideology that Hamas purportedly follows,” Henderson wrote last week.

Doha has provided Gaza with funding for power needs, public salaries, new apartment buildings, and schools.

For the Americans, who remain Qatar’s closest ally, this is both a boon and a bane. “Qatar’s role [in supporting both Hamas and Taliban] has prompted public furore in the United States … Yet its relationships with Hamas and the Taliban have sometimes been encouraged and praised by US administrations for varying policy reasons,” Henderson wrote.

This is why it invariably plays the role of the mediator during conflicts in the region, and a proxy for the US and other western countries when they cannot themselves engage in matters. Prior to enabling the release of hostages from Hamas, “Washington has been grateful for Qatar’s major role in helping refugees leave Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021,” Henderson wrote, adding that “a core group of Afghan-focused US diplomats now operates out of the US embassy in Doha.”

A precarious, yet successful, balancing act

Doha plays a balancing act like no other in the Middle East. It is disliked by other Arab states and close to Iran. It is also close to the United States all the while maintaining ties with Taliban and Hamas, which the US often criticises, but in times of need, actively leverages.

It is yet unclear as to what impact the latest conflict in Gaza will have on Qatar’s position. But as long as Doha continues to control over 12 per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves and hosts the United States’ most irreplaceable asset in the Middle East, it is safe to say that it will continue to chart its own course.