At the end of October 2023, the Qatari ambassador to the United States presented his state as a “reliable mediator” due to Doha’s extensive efforts to mediate between various players in the Middle East, while maintaining declared neutrality that supposedly ensured fair and reliable negotiations.
The mediator role earned Qatar both praise and scrutiny. The latter caused Qatari officials to explain: “Dialogue shouldn’t be confused with endorsement. We talk to different groups because we believe that open channels of communication are the only way to build trust and resolve differences.”
But Qatar is far from being a fair mediator between Israel and Hamas. In May 2021, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha. According to the official statement, the emir reiterated “Qatar’s support to the brotherly Palestinian people and their just cause.”
In the eyes of the leadership, Hamas is not a terror organization. Evidence of this sentiment appeared in his first interview as the emir of Qatar. Sheikh Tamim defended his country against allegations of funding terrorism. “I know that in America and some countries they look at some movements as terrorist movements.... But there are differences. There are differences... Some countries and some people [think] that any group which comes from [an] Islamic background are terrorists. And we don’t accept that.” It would be a “big mistake,” he said, to consider every Islamic movement to be “extremists.”
Moreover, Qatar provided Hamas with massive financial support estimated in the millions, according to one report last August. This economic assistance is not new. Already in 2012, Qatar’s then-emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani visited Gaza and donated $400 million to Hamas. This support has become almost self-evident. When Qatar decided to reduce the money transferred to the Gaza Strip, Hamas announced its refusal to transfer to the people of Gaza the money they had already received.
The current conflict didn’t change the Qatari sentiment. Haniyeh and the rest of the Hamas leadership watched and celebrated the Oct. 7 invasion from the safety of their Qatar office. Hosting Hamas leaders is just one of Qatar’s many ways of supporting Hamas. Parades in support of the Palestinians were observed throughout Qatar, parades that required permission from the Qatari authorities.
Far from neutral: How Qatar funds terrorist groups in the Middle East
Qatar’s lack of neutrality was expressed in its first response after the Hamas attack. While the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for restraint on all sides, Qatar was even less equivocal, saying Israel was “solely responsible for the ongoing escalation.” In its attempt to return to the role of mediator, Qatar slightly dialed down its response a day later, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha announced its “call for all parties to halt the escalation.”
Proof that this statement was a tactic and not a change of heart can be found in recent statements. During a weekly session of the Qatari Shura Council, member Salem bin Rashid Al Meraikhi “praised the resistance,” referring to Hamas’s full name, Islamic Resistance Movement.
Another proof can be found in Qatari media after Israel’s announcement of 10 soldiers killed in Gaza. Doha-based newspaper Al Watan published a picture glorifying Hamas. This newspaper is part of the country’s massive media mechanism, run by the regime. The chairman of its publishing group, Dar Al Watan for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, is from the ruling family, Hamad Bin Sahim Al Thani.
The Qatari press is also an indication of the cynical Qatari modus operandi. When US President Joe Biden presented his plan to deliver aid to Gaza from a floating pier at sea, the Qatari press criticized the plan. Qatari-owned Al Jazeera argued that the plan was an “attempt to ‘divert attention’ from widening famine in Gaza.”
Nevertheless, despite the Qatari criticism regarding the pier, Doha is financing and is expected to operate the pier in coordination with the US administration. Moreover, the Palestinian company contracted by Qatar to do the construction work has connections to Hamas.
Washington already faced Qatari duplicity regarding terror financing, as the case of Islamic State exemplifies. Qatar is an active participant in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and all the Defeat-ISIS working groups. But since the inception of the terror organization, US officials have accused Qatar of directly supporting the Islamic State.
In a similar fashion, the Qatari attitude toward al-Qaeda was duplicitous in nature. In early 2013, when the West pressured the Gulf Cooperation Council states to crack down on al-Qaeda-linked fundraisers, then-Qatari foreign minister Khalid Al Attiyah stated: “We are repelled by their views, their violent methods, and their ambitions.”
However, the US Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on Qatari nationals designated as “global terrorists” due to their alleged involvement in financial support for al-Qaeda and its Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front. These nationals were members of prominent families in Qatar.
Rather than imposing an Islamist agenda on the region, as some have accused it, Qatar is taking advantage of the clout it has built with terror organizations over the years to position itself as a leading middleman. Equally at ease with Islamist and secular parties, with liberals and conservatives, Qatar is using its status and various relations with opposing sides to influence the region.
As part of the Qatari masquerade, in many cases the financial assistance to terrorism is labeled by the Qataris as charity. It is important to the emirate to present itself as a humanitarian actor operating for a noble purpose.
One notable example is the actions of Abd al-Rahman Al Nuaimi. Nuaimi has been a senior figure in Qatar, having been a president of the Qatar Football Association and founder of a charity linked to the royal family, the Sheikh Eid bin Mohammed Al Thani Charitable Association. Nuaimi has been accused of sending £1.25m. a month to al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq, and £375,000 to al-Qaeda in Syria. For these actions, he was blacklisted as a terror financier by the US and the UN.
The humanitarian masquerade continued during the Swords of Iron war. The explanation provided by the Qatari prime minister as to why they didn’t close the Hamas office in Doha after Oct. 7 was, “The office has been used as a way of communicating and bringing peace and calm to the region.” After Qatar mediated a humanitarian pause in November 2023, the editor of Al Sharq, a newspaper owned by the ruling family, called to grant the emir the Nobel Peace Prize.
Although the Qataris present themselves as the responsible actor who brings hope to the hostages, officials involved in the negotiations described how the Qataris have addressed the situation as a political issue rather than a humanitarian issue.
In a similar fashion, when the Qatari prime minister described the negotiations in Gaza, he hoped for an “agreement for the exchange of prisoners.” This kind of thinking regarding the lives of civilians kidnapped from their beds is an indication of the cynical and unhumanitarian Qatari conduct. The masquerade of Qatar as a humanitarian actor is aimed to be used as a cover to gain more influence in the region. So far, it has succeeded in doing so.
But maybe a silver lining can be found on another front. Recently, Tunisia’s parliament barred a state-run Qatari fund from expanding into the country, as President Kais Saied led the charge against the proposal for the Qatar Fund for Development to open a Tunis branch.
Opponents described the Qatari office as “booby-trapped,” a threat to national sovereignty. Maybe it could be a sign of the much-needed disillusionment by the international community: The Qataris help no one but themselves.
The writer is a PhD student in Middle Eastern studies at Bar-Ilan University.