(NewsWorthy.news) – Qatar has said it has no plans to cease a Hamas office’s presence in Doha as the country continues to act as a mediator in the war in Gaza.
Spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry Majed al-Ansar said at a press conference that the office of the group, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, will remain in Doha as long as its presence is “positive” and “useful” in mediation efforts. Doha has been the subject of regular criticism over its links to Hamas. In January, the Gulf nation accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritizing his career and obstructing attempts at mediation when he criticized the country’s diplomatic efforts.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has also commented that it appears Hamas will remain in Qatar, claiming he saw no signs of the group intending to leave its base there. In October 2023, following a discussion between the emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a U.S. official reported that Qatar was open to reconsidering the group’s presence in the capital once the hostage crisis is resolved.
The gas-rich emirate has been widely condemned for accommodating the Hamas leaders; Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee declared that the state had “blood on its hands” and demanded that President Joe Biden’s administration force Qatar to arrest the organization’s leaders and take control of its assets. The nation has strived to maintain an independent foreign policy since the Iraq war, and in 2017 the Gulf region entered a diplomatic crisis when Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over claims it was destabilizing the region by supporting Islamist groups.
The relationship between Israel and Qatar has long been complex; Qatar was one of the first Arab states to arrange trade ties with Israel in 1996, but 13 years later the ties were severed due to the 2009 war in Gaza. The state has nonetheless coordinated with Tel Aviv in recent years to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to humanitarian projects in Gaza. The Qatari regime has been heavily criticized for using the funds to embolden Hamas rather than the relatively moderate Palestinian Authority. As a result, the organization opposed by Israel’s Arab allies has been allowed to gain a foothold in the region. Hamas has declined the request to relocate from the country to Syria.
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