Qatar announced that it is suspending its efforts to mediate between the Palestinian radical group "Hamas" and Israel for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages, world agencies reported, citing a statement from the Qatari Foreign Ministry issued on Saturday, BTA reported.
„Ten days ago, during the latest attempts to reach an agreement, Qatar informed the parties that it would suspend its efforts to mediate between “Hamas” and Israel if no agreement is reached“, the foreign ministry in Doha said.
The Gulf state has been working for months with the United States and Egypt on fruitless attempts to end the fire between the warring parties in the Gaza Strip, and any withdrawal from this process could further complicate efforts to reach a truce, Reuters noted. The last round of talks in mid-October failed after “Hamas” rejected a proposal for a short-term ceasefire.
Israel has also previously rejected some proposals for longer-term truces. Days after he was fired, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of unilaterally failing to accept a peace deal against the advice of his security chiefs.
Qatar has now concluded that the talks have become a “political football game” and its efforts to facilitate them have drawn criticism from itself, the British newspaper “The Guardian“ reports. Doha informed Israel, Hamas representatives, the United States and Egypt of its decision after a US delegation, including CIA Director Bill Burns, visited the Qatari capital for fruitless meetings in late October.
The small but influential Gulf state is a key ally of Washington in the region. It is home to the largest US air base in the region and is engaged in highly sensitive political negotiations, including with Iran, the Taliban and Russia. But this is the second time Qatar has warned publicly that it is not ready to host endless talks that are reaching a dead end. However, Doha is very likely to return to talks if the two warring parties show "serious political readiness" to reach an agreement, said Egypt, the other key mediator in the talks, quoted by Politico.
Qatar's decision was announced against the backdrop of deteriorating relations between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The White House is putting increasing pressure on improving the humanitarian situation for the Palestinians and reaching a negotiated agreement, the BBC reported. According to Hisham Hellyer, a British geopolitical analyst and senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, the US attempts at negotiations have been “fatally flawed“. “By setting red lines and allowing Netanyahu to cross them without consequences, the Biden administration has effectively encouraged further impunity. I don't think that will change in the next ten weeks”, he said.
Israel will now also be encouraged by the prospect of a Donald Trump administration, the BBC noted. While it is uncertain exactly what approach Trump will take to the region, it is thought more likely that he will allow Israel to act on its own terms. It therefore seems that the current US administration will have less and less influence over the government in Jerusalem. Will the “Hamas“ movement be expelled from Qatar? The American publication “National“ announced that, in addition to refusing to mediate, Qatar, at the request of the United States, has asked the political leadership of “Hamas” to leave the country within a month.
The group's office in Doha was opened in 2012 at the initiative of the administration of US President Barack Obama. For more than a decade, the office was a key channel for communication with the movement, including during negotiations last year to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the release of more than 100 hostages.
According to Qatari officials, senior members of the Palestinian organization's political bureau have already been informed of Doha's decision to expel them, but Mahmoud Taha, head of “Hamas” media relations in Lebanon, denied that the group's political leadership had been ordered to leave the country.
The exact number of Hamas members living in Qatar is unknown, but it is believed to include senior figures such as Khalil al-Haya, Khaled Meshaal, Osama Hamdan and Musa Abu Marzouk. The movement's political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in July, also lived in Qatar.
The expulsion of the Palestinians is the latest move by the US and its allies to put pressure on “Hamas“ to agree to the terms of a ceasefire and release the hostages, the National writes, and the BBC adds that the call to expel the group's political leadership from Qatar also appears to be an attempt by the outgoing Biden administration to force some kind of peace deal before the end of its term in January.
“Hamas“ leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any US partner,“ a senior administration official in Washington told the publication.
If the movement is forced to leave Doha, it is unclear where it would base its political office. Key ally Iran would be one possibility, although the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July suggests that if the leadership were moved there, it could be at risk from Israel. Moreover, that country would not provide them with the same diplomatic channels to the West, the BBC commented.
A more likely option would be Turkey. As a member of NATO, but also as a country with a predominantly Sunni population, it would provide the group with a base from which to operate in relative safety. In April last year, President Erdogan received the then political leader of "Hamas" Ismail Haniyeh and his delegation in Istanbul, where they discussed "what needs to be done to ensure adequate and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as a just and lasting peace process in the region".
In April, Doha briefly asked the group's political leadership to leave the country after Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani first announced that his country would review its mediation role. The Palestinians then headed to Turkey, the Guardian recalls, but within weeks Israel and the US government asked Qatar to send them back in order to intensify negotiations.
The possibility of establishing the Palestinian leadership in Turkey is likely to be welcomed by Ankara, which has often tried to position itself as a mediator between East and West, the BBC comments.
It is believed that the personal safety of the Hamas leadership is now a major concern for the group, whose two leaders were killed in less than four months. In addition to Haniyeh's death in July, in October Israel killed Yahya Sinwar, the "mastermind" of the attack on southern Israel on October 7. According to the European Council on Foreign Relations, the group has now "adopted a temporary model of collective leadership to cushion the impact of future Israeli assassinations." Hisham Hellyer told the BBC that no country "will provide them with protection from Israeli assassination attempts in the same way that they were provided when they were based in Doha, where America has its largest military base in the region."
Against this backdrop, Israel yesterday reported progress in ceasefire talks in Lebanon and suggested that Russia could play a role in preventing "Hezbollah" from rearming through Syria. The Iranian-backed Lebanese movement, however, said it had not yet received any ceasefire proposals, Reuters reported.
“I think there is noticeable progress“, the newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told a news conference in Jerusalem. “We are working together with the Americans on this issue“, he added. The Israeli newspaper “Hayom“ wrote that under the ceasefire proposal in Lebanon, “Hezbollah“ must withdraw north of the Litani River, ceasing its armed presence along the Israeli border, while the Israeli army must return behind the internationally established border.
A little later, however, Defense Minister Israel Katz indicated that "there will be no ceasefire with Hezbollah until the Lebanese Islamist movement completely surrenders." He specified that if there is a proposal for a ceasefire agreement, which also means the surrender of Hezbollah and meets all Israeli conditions, then Israel will certainly consider the issue very seriously.