Israel-Hamas ceasefire: Why Qatar is such a good negotiator

After weeks of negotiations in Doha, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas militant group was announced on Thursday, a deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

The agreement halts the current active conflict between the parties, which has been ongoing since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 people and the abduction of about 250 more. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza that followed has resulted in the deaths of more than 46,000 people, including an estimated 18,000 children. 

In a press conference late on Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the ceasefire's first phase would start on Sunday and extend for 42 days. Hamas will release 33 of the 98 remaining hostages in Gaza, and hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel will be released in exchange.

The deal should also lead to a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Al Thani said. 

This is far from the first time that Qatar has been involved in resolving global conflicts. Qatar has helped negotiate deals to release Americans held in Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela and return Ukrainian children to their families after they were taken to Russia.

Qatar has also presided over diplomatic breakthroughs between Sudan and Chad, and Eritrea and Djibouti, as well as the 2011 Darfur peace deal.  

In 2020, Qatar helped negotiate the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan with the extremist Taliban group. And, in November 2023, Qatari negotiators helped reach a temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. 

'Partner for peace'

"Qatar's emergence as a key mediator has elevated its diplomatic standing, transforming it from a regional outlier into a critical player on the world stage," Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the British think tank Royal United Services Institute, told DW. "This newfound role enhances Doha's influence ... and positions it as an indispensable 'partner for peace' within the global community."

The reasons why Qatar has set itself up as the world's mediator have been well-documented. By punching above its weight in diplomatic terms, Qatar wants to independently establish its own security in an unstable region, analysts say.

Forging its own foreign policy — by, for example, harboring dissidents and aiding revolutionary and militant groups — is also a way of competing with its traditional rival, the United Arab Emirates, and refusing to take orders from larger neighbor Saudi Arabia, researcher Ali Abo Rezeg wrote in a 2021 paper in the academic journal Insight Turkey.

Why are the Qataris so good at mediating?

Relationships are key, and Qatar is known for its wide and varied network of contacts. It has supported several very different groups by providing a base, weapons or funding. That includes the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libyan militias and anti-government revolutionaries in Syria, Tunisia and Yemen during the so-called Arab Spring.

In 2012, the US government led by Barack Obama asked Qatar to host the political wing of the militant Hamas group instead of seeing it move from Syria to Iran, where it would have been far less accessible.

Qatar also maintains better relations, including economic ties, with Iran than its neighbors, many of whom consider the country their enemy. 

And Qatar has hosted the United States at al-Udeid Air Base since 2001. This is now the biggest US base in the Middle East, with about 10,000 troops.

"Qatar definitely benefits from this because governments in the West, and the East to some extent, think of them as very useful friends to have," said Cinzia Bianco, an expert on Gulf states at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

For example, early in 2022 President Joe Biden named Qatar a "major non-NATO ally" partially because of the country's role in negotiating the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Being able to empathize with all parties also helps. Analysts say that, even as officials work closely with the United States, Qatar has also been more pragmatic about Islamist organizations in the region, seeing these as part of popular political movements that cannot be erased or avoided. In some cases, this has helped. Apparently, Taliban members said they felt more comfortable in Qatar, which they believed understood all sides.

Neutrality the priority

Qatari negotiators don't necessarily have special skills, Bianco said. They train for the job. "But I wouldn't say it's any more than diplomats working for other governments, including in Europe, do," she said. "So I think it's more about an attitude of trying to be as neutral as possible. For them it is so fundamentally important to play this role, and that means they put it above anything else, including internal and regional politics."

It's also about Qatari wealth, Bianco said. The country's resources allow the government to host participants and work on several crises at once. 

It may also have to do with a shorter chain of command. "[The Qatari] Foreign Ministry's ability to take decisions without being questioned or scrutinized by the public has meant that it can act decisively," Sultan Barakat, a professor of public policy at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, wrote in a February analysis in Accord, a publication that regularly reviews international peace initiatives.

Dangerous balancing act

Israeli politicians have accused Qatar of being a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and funding terrorism. US politicians have called for a reevaluation of the relationship with Qatar if it didn't put more pressure on Hamas. In April,  Republican senators introduced a bill to cancel Qatar's status as a major non-NATO ally.

The Qataris have repeatedly said they have no power over Hamas. 

"When you interact with nonstate armed militias who do bad things, you obviously risk having fingers pointed at you and people saying that, in some ways, you are validating these groups and have given them more legitimacy or access to resources," Bianco said.

She said the Qataris' argument was: "Yes, we have these ties, but we use them for good." 

No matter how imperfect the country , experts argue that Qatar is playing an essential role at the moment.

"Humanity has paid the heavy price for not sitting down and talking to each other before, during two world wars," Rabih El-Haddad, director of the Multilateral Diplomacy Division at the UN Institute for Training and Research in Switzerland, told DW.

"Today, we need parties who enable those who are in conflict to talk to one another and solve their differences through negotiation, diplomacy, and according to international law," he said.

DW's Jennifer Holleis contributed to this report. 

This article was originally published on August 20, 2024, and updated following the announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on January 16, 2025.

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp