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Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of Hamas, was assassinated in July in Tehran. The location of the assassination was notable, as a result of Haniyeh had spent most of his time in Doha, Qatar, since 2017. Most observers concur that Israel was behind the assassination, although it has neither confirmed nor denied doing so, and it’s cheap to suppose that the selection of place got here from a calculation that angering Qatar could be extra problematic than angering Iran.
That resolution displays the significance that Qatar has taken on within the Middle East regardless of its small dimension. Iran has far superior army forces and funds Hezbollah, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist group, on Israel’s Northern Border. Yet, the Israelis would have accurately acknowledged that their foremost ally, the U.S., sees the Qataris as pivotal to bringing peace to the area and mediating the battle between Israel and Hamas.
Qatar’s function in brokering the talks marks the fruits of three a long time of maneuvering by its management to place the emirate as a spot the place even enemies would possibly meet. It has managed to change into a serious U.S. ally, even because it additionally maintains contact with, and hosts on its soil, American enemies just like the Taliban, Hamas, and Iran.
For the primary a long time after its independence in 1971, Qatar was a minor participant on the worldwide relations scene, even permitting some overseas affairs to be performed by its highly effective neighbor, Saudi Arabia.
That modified on June 27, 1995, when Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa got here to energy as emir of Qatar, with the help of the U.S. The new chief instantly launched a challenge to make his small Gulf state a brand new participant, not merely within the area’s economic system, but additionally in world affairs and within the realm of concepts and cultural affect. For occasion, considered one of his first actions was to fund the Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite tv for pc tv station, permitting Qatar to set the agenda on TV screens from Casablanca to Cairo, usurping the function as soon as performed by state info ministries.
Hamad additionally inspired his authorities to spend money on new applied sciences comparable to Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). The emirate’s gasoline fields have been a sport changer as a result of they dramatically enhanced Qatar’s wealth, offering lots of of billions of {dollars} that he might export to achieve affect as different nations turned depending on Qatari largesse. The emirate’s regular provide of vitality additionally helped maintain voters in western Europe glad through the chilly winter months, incomes the gratitude of the leaders of their nations.
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By 1996, Qatar was delivering main shipments of pure gasoline to energy-hungry Japan and Europe, and accordingly gaining affect. Soon, the quantity of LNG popping out of Qatar exceeded the wildest desires of Hamad and his ministers. This was potential partly as a result of Hamad constructed and maintained peaceable relations with Iran, which enabled Qatar to share the North Field the place most of its gasoline received pumped.
In addition to turning into an indispensable supply for world vitality, Qatar additionally started inviting worldwide universities to construct campuses within the emirate. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the spouse of the Emir Hamad inaugurated “Education City” in 1997. With prestigious establishments from Georgetown to Carnegie Mellon establishing campuses, Qatar has been in a position to challenge a picture as the middle for increased studying within the Middle East, usurping a place as soon as held by much more populous nations comparable to Egypt and Lebanon.
Further, after 9/11, Qatar stepped up when the U.S. was in search of alternate options to Saudi bases. In 2003, the emirate agreed to permit the U.S. to show Al-Udeid airbase, then largely a secret set up, into the sprawling headquarters of U.S. Central Command.
Yet, whilst Qatar courted and constructed ties with the West, the emirate additionally hosted leaders within the Islamic world, together with Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Muslim Brotherhood chief who turned a non secular character on Al Jazeera. This in style outreach to the Muslim world gave Qatar the latitude to keep up a quiet strategic and army alliance with the U.S. — which insured the small state towards threats by extra highly effective neighbors — with out turning into a pariah or dropping public help in its personal area.
Qatar’s greatest technique of change into a world participant, nonetheless, was to change into the host for peace talks among the many area’s warring factions. Hamad and his advisers acknowledged that this function promised status at little value.
Qatar cared much less about which aspect in a dispute or warfare was a more in-depth ally, and extra about internet hosting the dialog to curry favor with each sides. In 2008, a political disaster in Lebanon was about to interrupt into civil warfare. The Iran-backed Shia militia Hezbollah took management over components of Beirut, as its rivals labored to eject Hezbollah officers from the federal government. Qatar provided to mediate — a frightening problem provided that Lebanon’s final bloody civil warfare had lasted for 15 years between 1975-1990. In 2009, nonetheless, Qatari mediators brokered an settlement, which allowed Hezbollah some function in authorities.
The emirate got here out of the disaster trying like an neutral mediator, which garnered reward each from the U.S. — which staunchly opposes Hezbollah and different Iran-backed teams — and Iran, which is Hezbollah’s foremost patron.
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Yet, Qatar by no means positioned itself as fully impartial in each battle. It has lengthy supported the Palestinian folks with hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and supported Palestinian management over Gaza. In 2012, Hamad made the extraordinary gesture of visiting Gaza, whereas offering funds to make sure the infrastructure and authorities providers of the strip wouldn’t fully shut down.
While some have criticized Qatar for supporting Hamas in these efforts, the emirate sometimes operated with the total data — and even help — of the U.S. and Israel. Neither nation needed chaos in Gaza, however neither might afford politically to instantly help Hamas. Qatar, as soon as once more, served because the helpful intermediary.
In 2013, Hamad retired to an advisory capability. His son Sheikh Tamim succeeded him, and so they continued to place Qatar as an indispensable mediator and peacemaker sustaining ties with all the key gamers within the area.
Even as Qatar remained a serious American ally, it managed to keep up a cordial relationship with Iran — a lot nearer than another high U.S. ally. That proved essential in 2017 when Qatar encountered diplomatic troubles of its personal.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates — with help from the Trump Administration — needed to persuade Qatar to curtail its outreach to Iran and help of teams like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia shut its border to Qatar, imperiling the emirate’s meals provide. Iran responded by sending planeloads of meals and permitting Qatar airways to fly over its land.
In 2021, Qatar reached an settlement to stop a warfare with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. It conceded little — the emirate continued to host Hamas and help the Muslim Brotherhood — enabling it to keep up its place as a bridge between Iran and its rivals. Reflecting Qatar’s capability to straddle divides, Israel even signed a minor buying and selling settlement with the emirate that very same yr.
The following yr, the success of the World Cup in Doha helped clean relations between Qatar and the opposite Gulf nations. And once more, it allowed Qatar to re-emerge in its function as regional mediator.
When the Israel-Hamas War broke out in 2023, the U.S. referred to as upon the emirate to assist safe a ceasefire. Despite being separated by lots of of miles from each Gaza and Israel, Doha, Qatar is the closest impartial house for the representatives of each Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While neither aspect desires to be seen as giving up floor, there may be hope that Qatar can dealer an settlement.
If historical past is any indication, it simply would possibly work. Negotiating an settlement would earn Qatar main credit score across the globe and it will additionally at the very least quickly clear up the emirate’s most important problem.
Qatar wants to stop any full-scale army battle between the U.S. and Iran that may make the U.S. base in Qatar a goal. Such a battle would reduce off the emirate’s foremost supply of wealth and affect: the export of LNG by means of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. A mistake and an escalation — whether or not or not it’s an Iranian or Israeli overreaction — that results in warfare between the U.S./Israel and Iran/Hezbollah, is feasible each day a ceasefire will not be signed. This feared doomsday state of affairs, greater than the rest, motivates Qatar to attempt to discover a resolution earlier than the peacemaker is drawn right into a warfare and compelled to decide on sides.
Allen Fromherz is director of Middle East Studies Center at GSU and creator of The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present (UC Press).
Made by History takes readers past the headlines with articles written and edited by skilled historians. Learn extra about Made by History at TIME right here. Opinions expressed don’t essentially replicate the views of TIME editors.
