Late Tuesday, Qatar formally announced a deal between Israel and Hamas that would temporarily pause fighting in Gaza to facilitate a prisoner exchange of at least 50 Israeli and dual-national hostages for the return of 150 Palestinian prisoners, among other elements.
Implementation of the deal is still being finalized, but it looks like a serious diplomatic breakthrough, though decidedly not a resolution to the conflict. The deal was so sensitive that even as the agreement appeared imminent, senior White House officials were reluctant to confirm until the Qatari government officially announced anything.
Qatar got the spotlight here because of their role as mediator through weeks of painstaking negotiations in Doha. The United States played a role, for sure, as did Egypt. But Qatar was a key intermediary.
Even before this most recent war between Israel and Hamas, the very tiny, very rich Gulf state had carved out a bit of a reputation as a diplomatic broker, especially in hostage negotiations. This has been a deliberate gambit on Qatar’s part, which has cultivated and managed pragmatic ties with the region’s main players — becoming a kind of middle man between parties that otherwise do not get along. It’s a key US ally, hosting an American military base critical to US operations in places like Syria and Iraq. But Qatar also has ties to Islamist groups, including Hamas, whose political arm has an office in Doha.
This has given Qatar leverage — and, most importantly, access. The United States and Israel do not negotiate directly with Hamas. That has made the Qataris an indispensable go-between. “You have to talk to Hamas to get anything done,” said F. Gregory Gause, professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M. “The Qataris are there to help you out — and they’re there to remind you that they’re helping you out.”
Its role in this conflict extends beyond this week’s deal. In late October, Qatar helped…
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