Bassam Tawit
Gatestone Institute, Apr. 24, 2024
“Qatar’s dalliance with Islamist groups has long been the primary means for Doha to project influence in the Arab world, particularly through state support for Al-Jazeera Arabic. For too long, Doha has danced between its Islamist allies and its Western and Arab partners.”
Recently, the rulers of Qatar demonstrated that they not only serve as gracious hosts to the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas terror group, but that they also have a sense of humor.
The Gulf state’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani announced during a press conference in Doha that his country is reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas after facing criticism.
“Qatar is in the process of a complete re-evaluation of its role,” al-Thani said. “There is exploitation and abuse of the Qatari role,” he said, adding that Qatar had been the victim of “point-scoring” by “politicians who are trying to conduct election campaigns by slighting the State of Qatar.”
Earlier, al-Thani said negotiations to secure the release of more than 130 remaining Israeli hostages, abducted by Hamas to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, had stalled.
“We are going through a sensitive stage with some stalling, and we are trying as much as possible to address this stalling,” the Qatari premier said.
Oh really.