From Gaza to Ukraine: Why is Qatar such a good negotiator?

Officials from Russia and Ukraine have not met since shortly after the war between them started in early 2022 when Russian troops invaded Ukraine. But over the weekend, news of possible talks to be mediated by the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar emerged.

It could "have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries,"the Washington Post, the first media outlet to report on the planned talks, said.

The talks were canceled because of the movement of Ukrainian troops into Kursk, Russia. But news of their potential could well be seen as another triumph for the small, gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar.

This is far from the first time Qatar has been involved in conflicts outside of the Middle East. Qatar has helped do deals to release Americans held in Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela, as well as return Ukrainian children to their families after they were taken to Russia. Qatar has also presided over diplomatic breakthroughs between Sudan and Chad, and Eritrea and Djibouti, as well as a 2011 Darfur peace deal. 

In 2020, Qatar helped negotiate the US withdrawal from Afghanistan with the extremist Taliban group. And in November 2023, Qatari negotiators helped reacha temporary cease-fire in the Gaza conflict.

Qatar, 'the world's go-to negotiator'

"Qatar's emergence as a key mediator has elevated its diplomatic standing, transforming it from a regional outlier into a critical player on the world stage," Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the British think tank Royal United Services Institute told DW. "This newfound role enhances Doha's influence... and positions it as an indispensable 'partner for peace' within the global community."

The reasons why Qatar has set itself up as the world's mediator have been well documented. By punching above its weight in diplomatic terms, Qatar wants to independently establish its own security in an unstable region, analysts explain.

Forging its own foreign policy — by, for example, harboring dissidents and aiding revolutionary and militant groups — is also a way of competing with its traditional rival, the United Arab Emirates, and refusing to take orders from much larger neighbor Saudi Arabia, researcher Ali Abo Rezeg explained in a 2021 paper in academic journal Insight Turkey.

Why are the Qataris so good at mediating?

Relationships are key and Qatar is known for its wide and varied network of contacts, having supported a number of very different groups by providing a base, weapons or funding. That includes the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libyan militias and anti-government revolutionaries in Syria, Tunisia and Yemen during the so-called "Arab Spring."

In 2012, the US government led by Barack Obama asked Qatar to host the political wing of the militant Hamas group, instead of seeing it move from Syria to Iran, where it would have been far less accessible.

Qatar also maintains better relations, including economic ties, with Iran than its neighbors, many of whom consider the Iranians their enemy. 

And Qatar has hosted the US at al-Udeid Air Base since 2001. This is now the biggest US base in the Middle East with around 10,000 troops.

"Qatar definitely benefits from this because governments in the West, and the East to some extent, think of them as very useful friends to have," explains Cinzia Bianco, an expert on Gulf states at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

For example, early in 2022, US President Joe Biden named Qatar a "major non-NATO ally" partially because of Qatar's role in negotiating the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Being able to empathize with all parties also helps. Analysts say that even as they work closely with the Americans, the Qataris have also been more pragmatic about Islamist organizations in the region, seeing these as part of popular political movements that cannot be erased or avoided. In some cases, this has helped. Apparently Taliban members said they felt more comfortable in Qatar, which they believed understood all sides.

Neutrality the priority

Qatari negotiators don't necessarily have special skills, Bianco says. They too train for the job. "But I wouldn't say it's any more than diplomats working for other governments, including in Europe, do," she suggests. "So I think it's more about an attitude of trying to be as neutral as possible. For them it is so fundamentally important to play this role [as mediators], and that means they put it above anything else, including internal and regional politics."

It's also about Qatari wealth, Bianco adds. Their resources allows them to host participants and work on several crises at once. 

It may also have to do with a shorter chain of command. "[The Qatari] foreign ministry's ability to take decisions without being questioned or scrutinized by the public has meant that it can act decisively," Sultan Barakat, a professor of public policy at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, confirmed in a February analysis in Accord, a publication that regularly reviews international peace initiatives.

Dangerous balancing act

However being the "world's go-to negotiator" can also be uncomfortable. The current Hamas-Israel talks Qatar is involved in are some of the "most high stakes" negotiations its ever undertaken, observers argue.

Israeli politicians have accused Qatar of being a "wolf in sheep's clothing" that's funding terrorism. American politicians have called for a "re-evaluation" of the relationship with Qatar, if the Qataris didn't put more pressure on Hamas. In April, others introduced a bill that could cancel Qatar's status as a major non-NATO ally.

The Qataris have rejected all the accusations, saying they have no power over Hamas. 

"When you interact with non-state armed militias who do bad things, you obviously risk having fingers pointed at you and people saying that, in some ways, you are validating these groups and have given them more legitimacy or access to resources," Bianco explained.

She says the Qataris' argument is "yes, we have these ties, but we use them for good." 

No matter how imperfect the country , experts argue that the world needs Qatar in this role at the moment.

"Humanity has paid the heavy price for not sitting down and talking to each other before, during two world wars," Rabih El-Haddad, director of the division for multilateral diplomacy at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in Switzerland, told DW.

"Today we need parties who enable those who are in conflict to talk to one another and solve their differences through negotiation, diplomacy and according to international law," he said.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker