If 50 or more of the hostages in the Gaza Strip are released in the coming days, it will be thanks to the skill of the Gulf emirate and the influence of its ruler. Why does Qatar always manage to mediate between enemies? And what does the emirate get out of it?
One crisis was barely over when the next began. On October 3, Joe Biden called Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The US President wanted to personally thank the Emir of Qatar. Weeks earlier, thanks to the Gulf state’s persistent negotiating skills, a deal was reached that secured the freedom of five US citizens – after years of being held hostage in Iran. “President Biden and the Emir plan to continue their efforts for a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East,” said a White House press statement.
How soon they would have the opportunity to do so became clear less than four days later, when in the early morning of October 7th, thousands of Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, carried out massacres of unprecedented proportions and killed 240 people, mostly civilians. abducted from Israel.