The Islamic government of Qatar confirmed on Tuesday that it is available to continuing to sponsor the management of the jihadist terror business Hamas as long as doing so is “useful and good. ”
Qatar has offered safe shelter and luxurious hotel rooms to Hamas’s most senior officials since 2012. While Hamas is the state of the disputed Gaza Strip, its best “political” officials live in Doha. Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas “political” leader, is believed to be worth over$ 4 billion and he and his family often show off their wealth.
“ He [ Haniyeh ] and his associates have been photographed flying in private jets, enjoying fine dining, and attending international sporting events, ” the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies ( FDD ) observed in January.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari was responding on Tuesday to concerns about various top officials in Doha expressing frustration with the lack of development in Qatari-hosted conversations between Hamas and the state of Israel.
Sequencing, QATAR — Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian meets with Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar on November 24, 2023. ( Iranian Foreign Ministry / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images )
The discussions followed the terrible Hamas invasion and murder, murder, and punish binge within Israel on October 7. Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 people on that day and took 250 victims, of which 133 are believed to be in criminal prison.
Following October 7, Qatar hosted several shells of discussions between Hamas and Israel intended to result in the independence of the victims. Those discussions have stalled, yet, and the Qataris grumbled last year that their country had experienced unspecified “exploitation and abuse ” from “politicians ” looking to promote themselves at the expense of the reputation of Qatar. As a result, Doha was “reevaluating ” its role as a mediator, officials said.
Ansari clarified on Tuesday that the alleged “exploitation and abuse ” in question came from Israel, whose leaders had questioned the friendly relations between Doha and the extremists who had just invaded the country. Qatar is also reevaluating its place as negotiator, he said, but never expecting to oust the powerful Hamas management in Doha anytime soon.
“As long as their presence here in Doha, as we have always said, is useful and positive in this mediation effort, they will remain here, ” Ansari said, according to the Agence France-Presse ( AFP).
“As much as Qatar’s intervention efforts continue, there is no explanation for the conclusion [of] the presence of the Hamas political ministry in Doha, ” the Qatari store al-Jazeera quoted Ansari as saying. “This office was opened – in cooperation with the United States – for the purpose of counseling between both sides. As of now, nothing has changed in that respect. ”
File/Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniya ( 3rd-R ) waves upon his arrival at a rally marking the 31st anniversary of Hamas ’ founding, in Gaza City December 16, 2018. ( SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty )
Ansari likewise accused “ministers in Netanyahu’s government ” of further insulting Qatari, without offering example of the alleged contempt.
“We have profound disappointment with such remarks especially from Israeli officials acquainted with our intervention efforts and philanthropic work in Gaza, ” al-Jazeera quoted him as saying. “Attacking the arbitrator does not exhibit responsibility. And this is what we are getting from our Jewish peers. We’ve been accused of having ulterior intentions. This is just misleading. ”
“They all know what the Qatari part is, its character, and its information during the previous stage and they lied, ” Ansari concluded.
Qatar enjoys a special position in the Middle East that allows it to keep close ties to jihadists such as Hamas and the Afghan Taliban, which it hosted for ages before the jihadists seized Kabul as a result of President Joe Biden’s problems in 2021, while likewise hosting a U. S. military base. Biden elevated ties with Qatar to “major non-NATO ally ” status in 2022, a privilege Republicans in Congress have challenged after Qatar refused to abandon Hamas following the October 7 atrocities.
Apparently undermining Ansari’s claims to Qatar being a neutral mediator in the ongoing crisis, Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – an unabashed supporter of Hamas who met with Haniyeh on Saturday – said that the Qatari government viewed Hamas as “family. ”
President @RTErdogan received Head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh at Dolmabahçe Presidential Office in Istanbul. pic. twitter. com/L1haaOyRpX
— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye ( @trpresidency ) April 20, 2024
“The sincerity they [ Qatar ] have towards them [ Hamas], their stance toward them, has always been like a member of the family, ” Erdogan said on Tuesday, according to al-Jazeera. “ In the coming period, I absolutely do not think it is possible for them to change this approach. ”
The suspected offending comments from Israel that outraged the Qatari government included remarks in January in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly called Doha “problematic. ”
“Qatar, as far as I’m concerned, is not significantly different from the UN, is not significantly different from the Red Cross, and to some extent it ’s even more problematic, ” Netanyahu allegedly said.
Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani announced last week that his country was entering “a complete re-evaluation of its role ” as a go-between for Hamas and Israel.
Ismail Haniyeh Head of the Hamas Political Bureau, during the work of the 8th Ordinary Congress of the Movement for a Peaceful Society ( MSP), in Algiers, Algeria on March 16, 2023 ( Amine Chikhi/APP/NurPhoto via Getty Images )
“There is exploitation and abuse of the Qatari role, ” he claimed, accusing accused “politicians ” of “trying to conduct election campaigns by slighting the State of Qatar. ”
While Ansari stated on Tuesday that Qatar was upset with Israeli politicians, al-Thani’s remarks followed the introduction of a bill in the U. S. House of Representatives in early April to strip Qatar of its status as a “major non-NATO ally. ”
“Major Non-NATO Ally status is a privilege and countries like Qatar must continuously earn, ” Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), who co-sponsored the bill, said at the time. “Failure to take action against Hamas is beginning to look like tacit support for a foreign terrorist organization designated by the United States. ”
The Qatari embassy in Washington condemned the bill as “reckless. ”
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