When Joe Biden wanted to cut a deal with Iran to secure the release of five Americans being held hostage, his negotiators turned to their “best friend” in the Middle East – Qatar. Qatar, which just last year hosted European football’s World Cup, has over the past decade become, as one reporter put it, “indispensable as a geopolitical fixer.”
According to Fiona McDonald, “The U.S. privately acknowledges that it doesn’t do anything in the Gulf without Qatar.” To back up her claim, she cites Ayham Kamel, who oversees the Middle East and Africa for the political risk consultant Eurasia Group, who said, “Few other regional parties have the depth of the relationship to move the needle on this [hostages] issue.”
Qatar’s reputation is well earned, though some question what the oil-rich Arab nation gains from intervening between “terrorist” groups and hostile governments for the release of individuals they chose to hold hostage in the first place.
Back in 2013, Qatar intervened with the Syrian government to secure the release of 11 Lebanese Shia pilgrims held by Syrian rebels in exchange for freeing several hundred prisoners from Syrian jails. The very next year, the Qatari negotiation team was able to win the release of 13 Greek Orthodox nuns and their three maids held for three months by a Syrian rebel group linked to al-Qaeda, as part of a deal that saw Syria release 153 female prisoners.
Shortly afterward, another group of Syrian rebels released American writer Peter Theo Curtis after 22 months of captivity. After Curtis’ family had been harassed with ransom demands as high as $25 million, Samantha Power, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, connected Curtis’ family with the Qatari government with the proviso that no ransom could be paid.
At the time, there were reports that Qatar was also working to free four other Americans held hostage by various militant groups in Syria. According to Reuters, one unnamed Syrian rebel group commander lauded Qatar for its efforts.
“Qatar,” he reportedly said, “has good connections here on the ground with various groups. Freeing hostages is their priority, and whenever there is a chance, they help. They use these connections to release hostages.” Another Syrian opposition official added that, “Qatar has very good connections with brigades inside Syria. That’s why their attempts have been successful,” reports Reuters.
Not resting on their laurels, the Qatari hostage negotiation team in September 2014 helped secure the release of 45 Fijian soldiers, part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, who were being held captive by yet another al-Qaeda affiliate. The UN reportedly coughed up a $25 million ransom payment to the Nusra Front as part of the deal. Fiji had asked the UN to seek Qatar’s help in negotiating the release.
Perhaps the most controversial hostage deal involving the Qatari team involved the kidnapping of 28 Qataris, including members of the royal family, in December 2015, by an Iraqi Shia militia group supported by Iran. The kidnappers reportedly demanded $1 billion for the release of the royal family members; the money would go to support Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, General Qasem Soleimani (later killed by the U.S.), and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the successor to al Nusra).
After 16 months of back-and-forth negotiations (that reportedly involved both money and political alignments), the prisoners were released. Qatar has not said if it paid a ransom or, if so, how much, to secure their freedom. At the time, a billion dollars was deemed a huge payout to kidnappers.
The Qatari hostage team was called upon again in 2019 to secure the release of two Western academics held hostage for three years by the Afghan Taliban. American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks were professors at the American University in Kabul when they were taken hostage. The Qataris finally secured a swap for three Afghan militants as part of a deal to restart talks with the Taliban.
So it was no surprise that the Biden Administration announced just weeks ago that it had worked out a deal, brokered by the Qataris, to swap five Iranians for five Americans held hostage by Iran – and as part of the deal to hand over $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
Reuters explained that Qatar mediated indirect U.S.-Iran talks on the prisoners, while Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran, helped with the transfer of funds from South Korea to Qatari accounts. France24 said at the time that the deal, finalized after months of talks in Qatar, “removes a major irritant between the U.S., which brands Tehran as a sponsor of terrorism, and Iran, which calls Washington the ‘Great Satan’.”
But how quickly things can change on the international terror front. Just weeks ago, Hamas, which rules over the residents of Gaza, conducted murderous raids into Israel, prompting demands that Qatar, which had not released the $6 billion to Iran, keep the money on ice.
On October 12, the U.S. and Qatar announced an agreement that the Qataris will not act on any request from Tehran for the time being to access any of the $6 billion. The agreement stopped short of a full refreezing of the money, prompting demands from Republicans and some others that the money never be allowed to go to Iran.
Now the Qatari team has been called upon once more by the United States, Israel, and other nations to negotiate the release of hundreds of hostages taken by Hamas in Gaza. Already on October 20 the Qataris helped to secure the release of two American civilian hostages, with Hamas stating this was for “humanitarian” reasons.
The breakthrough, said a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, “comes after many days of continuous communication between all the parties involved. We hope these efforts will lead to the release of all civilian hostages from every nationality.”
The Qataris have been in frequent contact with the Israelis at the political, military, and intelligence levels, making use of a relationship that goes back decades. This despite the two nations having no formal diplomatic ties and Qatar’s non-participation in the Abraham Accords.
At this juncture, with threats of invasion and no real plan put forward by anyone for the long-term future of the Gaza Strip, there is no way to know whether negotiations have any chance of success. But one thing is certain – if there is a chance, the West is betting on the Qataris to find the pathway.