Qatar’s Islamist government admitted on Tuesday that it is willing to continue hosting the leadership of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas as long as it is “useful and positive”.
Qatar is offered Since 2012, it has provided safe haven and luxury hotel accommodations to Hamas’s most senior leaders. Hamas is the government in the disputed Gaza Strip, but its “political” leaders live in Doha. Ismail Haniyeh, the top political leader of Hamas, believed it His assets are said to be worth more than $4 billion, and he and his family often flaunt their wealth.
“he [Haniyeh] They have been photographed riding private jets, enjoying fancy meals and attending international sporting events,” the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) said. observed In January.
Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed Al-Ansari on Tuesday responded to a question about other senior leaders in Doha who had expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in Qatar-sponsored talks between Hamas and the Israeli government.
Doha, Qatar — Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian meets with Hamas Politburo Chairman Ismail Haniya on November 24, 2023 in Doha, Qatar. (Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout/Anadolu, via Getty Images)
The talks came in the wake of the brutal Hamas incursion inside Israel on October 7, killings, rapes and torture. Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 people that day and took 250 hostages, of whom 133 are believed to remain in terrorist captivity.
After October 7, Qatar hosted multiple rounds of talks between Hamas and Israel aimed at releasing the hostages. But those talks have stalled, with Qatari citizens complaining last week that they were experiencing unspecified “exploitation and abuse” from “politicians” seeking to promote their own publicity at the expense of Qatar’s reputation. Ta. As a result, Doha is “re-evaluating” his role as a mediator, officials said.
Ansari clarified on Tuesday that the “exploitation and abuse” in question came from Israel, and that Israeli leaders had doubts about Doha’s friendly relationship with the terrorists who had just invaded the country. He said Qatar was still reevaluating its position as a mediator but did not expect it to oust Doha’s wealthy Hamas leadership anytime soon.
“As we have always said, as long as their presence here in Doha is useful and positive in this mediation effort, they will remain here,” Ansari said. SaidAccording to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“As long as Qatar’s mediation efforts continue, there is no justification for ending mediation.” [of] “Presence of Hamas’ Politburo in Doha,” Qatar’s Al Jazeera news agency reported. Quote Ansari said: “This office was opened in coordination with the United States for the purpose of mediation between the two sides. So far, nothing has changed in that regard.”
File/Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (3R) waves as he arrives at a rally commemorating Hamas’s 31st anniversary in Gaza City, December 16, 2018. (SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty)
Mr. Ansari also accused “ministers of the Netanyahu government” of needlessly hostile to Qatar, but offered no examples of that disdain.
“We are deeply dissatisfied with these statements, especially by Israeli officials familiar with our mediation efforts and humanitarian work in Gaza,” Al Jazeera quoted him as saying. “Attacking the mediator does not show commitment. And this is what we are getting from our Israeli counterparts. We are being accused of having ulterior motives. This is simply not true. ”
“They all knew about Qatar’s role, its nature, the details of the previous stages, and they lied,” Ansari concluded.
Qatar enjoys a unique position in the Middle East, allowing it to maintain close ties with terrorists such as Hamas and the Afghan Taliban. Qatar hosted the terrorists for years until jihadists captured Kabul as a result of President Joe Biden’s failures in 2021, while also hosting the Afghan Taliban. American base.biden expensive The country will partner with Qatar in 2022 as a “major non-NATO ally,” but Congressional Republicans objected to this privilege after Qatar refused to abandon Hamas in the wake of the October 7 atrocities. is chanting.
Clearly undermining Ansari’s claim that Qatar is a neutral mediator in the ongoing crisis, Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met with Haniya on Saturday, unashamedly criticized Hamas. He said the Qatari government considers Hamas a “family.”
president @RETerdogan He met with Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, at the Dolmabahçe presidential palace in Istanbul. pic.twitter.com/L1haaOyRpX
— President of Turkiye Republic (@trpresidency) April 20, 2024
“Their sincerity [Qatar] have against them [Hamas]Their attitude towards them has always been like they were part of the family,” Erdoğan said. Said Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera. “I don’t think it’s possible for them to change this approach going forward.”
Israel’s unpleasant comments that infuriated the Qatari government included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments in January when he called Doha “problematic.”
“As far as I know, Qatar is not very different from the United Nations, not much different from the Red Cross, and to some extent even more problematic,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani announced last week that the country was undergoing a “complete reevaluation of its role” as an intermediary between Hamas and Israel.
Hamas Political Director Ismail Haniyeh during the 8th regular meeting of the Movement for Peace and Society (MSP) in Algiers, Algeria, March 16, 2023. (Amine Chikhi/APP/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“There is exploitation and abuse of Qatar’s role,” he claimed, accusing the accused “politicians” of trying to “campaign by disrespecting the State of Qatar.”
Mr. Ansari said on Tuesday that Qatar was angry with Israeli politicians, but Mr. Al-Thani’s remarks came as a result of a bill in April that would strip Qatar of its status as a “major non-NATO ally.” This comes in response to a bill that was submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives at the beginning of the month.
“Major non-NATO ally status is a privilege that countries like Qatar must continue to earn,” bill co-sponsor Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said at the time. Ta. “Failure to take action against Hamas is beginning to look like tacit support for a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.”
The Qatari embassy in Washington called the bill “reckless.”
