LONDON: During the temporary ceasefire negotiated between Israel and Hamas with the mediation of the Qatar government, 105 hostages were released in return for the freeing of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli custody.
Hundreds of lorry loads of aid have been allowed into the war zone and, just as the deadline for the end of the ceasefire was due to expire, it was announced on Nov 27 that it had been extended for two days. On Thursday (Nov 30), the truce was extended for one more day.
This represents a major success for Qatari mediators, with tangible and very visible results. Israeli and Palestinian families have been reunited and the desperate plight of Palestinians trapped in Gaza has been eased by the arrival of supplies of fuel, food and medicines – at least for now. The hope is that this situation can continue.
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US-TALIBAN AMONG PREVIOUS DEALS BROKERED
Qatar’s role in conflict mediation goes back many years. As a third-party mediator, Qatar has been exercising such diplomatic abilities since the 1990s and it has become an important aspect of its foreign policy.
Qatar emerged as a centre for conflict resolution in the late 2000s and a succession of deals have been brokered there since. It hosted the talks between the United States and the Taliban, which resulted in the US withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2021.
But before that, the signing of peace deals in Lebanon (2008), Yemen (2010), Darfur (2011) and Gaza (2012) contributed significantly to Qatar’s rising reputation as a peace broker.
The last deal on this list, in which Qatar’s emir, Hamad Khalifa Al Thani, played an important role as the only head of state to have visited Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007, established the small but important Gulf kingdom as a possibly key player in peace talks in the current conflict.
In 2022, Al Thani declared at the 77th United Nations General Assembly that “mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes” was at the centre of Qatar’s foreign policy to “solidify a reputation as an internationally reliable partner”.
Qatar is not a completely neutral party in the latest conflict. Hamas has a political office in the Qatari capital, Doha – which it has said will remain open, despite the Oct 7 attacks. And the Qatari government has given billions of dollars in aid to Hamas in Gaza over the past decade.
So what is it about Qatar that makes it such an effective broker of peace deals?