Richard Goldberg
WSJ, Oct. 31, 2023
“With America’s apparent blessing, Qatar continues to act as if it’s Oct. 6: It has kept Hamas’s office in Doha open and on Oct. 14 hosted a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.”
More than three weeks after the Oct. 7 atrocities, Qatar still plays host to Hamas’s “political” leaders, allowing the terror group to coordinate with Iran and pump its propaganda throughout the world. Doha says its relationship with Hamas benefits the U.S. and Israel, providing a channel to negotiate the release of hostages held in Gaza. Rather than indulge this charade, the White House and Congress should issue an ultimatum to Qatar: Shut down all support for Hamas and deliver the hostages, or suffer the consequences.
Qatar’s role in financing Islamic radicalism isn’t new. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, lived in Qatar in the 1990s and reportedly evaded U.S. arrest with the help of Interior Minister Abdullah Bin Khalid Al-Thani. U.S. officials in 2014 identified Qatar as a “permissive jurisdiction” for financing ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, then a Syrian affiliate of al Qaeda. Seven years later, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin reportedly shared intelligence with Washington that Doha had recently sent funds to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Qatar has long been sympathetic to Hamas. When the group won elections in 2006 and Israel and the U.S. subsequently cut off financial support to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority, Qatar vowed to provide aid. In 2009, two years after the group forcibly took over Gaza, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal praised Qatar for its support, which at the time reportedly included millions of dollars a month.
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