Introduction
Introduction Statistics Contact Development Disclaimer Help
.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
A presidential jet and a massive US airbase didn’t shield Qatar from
Israel’s attack. America’s Arab allies are taking note
Analysis by Paula Hancocks, CNN
Updated:
6:00 PM EDT, Wed September 10, 2025
Source: CNN
Qatar would have been forgiven for thinking it was immune from Israeli
attack.
The tiny Gulf state is a key US ally that welcomed President Donald
Trump just four months ago; red carpets were laid, billion-dollar deals
were done and a bequeathed.
As for its role as mediator , Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed
bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani personally met with Hamas’ chief
negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya on Monday to push for the new US-led
ceasefire and hostage deal. Hamas’ response was expected at a
follow-up meeting Tuesday evening; a couple of hours before that
answer, Israeli jets , killing five Hamas members and a Qatari security
official.
The sense of shock and betrayal is palpable in the Qatari capital. The
vocabulary being used by Qatar’s prime minister is strong, evocative
and damning, a departure from his usual composed response to the
incessant twists and turns of trying to end the 23-month war in Gaza.
In an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson Wednesday, he described the
attack as “state terror” and warned the Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu had “killed any hope” for the hostages and
undermined “any chance of peace.” He also said the Israeli leader
must be “brought to justice,” accusing him of breaking “every
international law.”
A country with no diplomatic ties to Israel invited its delegations to
come and negotiate indirectly with Hamas; an endeavor appreciated by
President Trump, who spoke of Doha “bravely taking risks with us to
broker peace.”
Qatar is also considered to have taken a hit when Iran struck the Al
Udeid military base in June of this year, the largest US military
facility in the region. Tehran said it was in response to US strikes on
its nuclear facilities. Doha issued strong condemnation but little
more.
Questioning the pivot to America
The message taken from this strike does not end at Qatar’s borders.
Nations across the Gulf, who for decades have actively pivoted toward
the US, politically and financially, may now be questioning the assumed
benefits of that choice.
US security guarantees were implicit in deals done and memoranda
signed. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE pledged an eye-watering $3
trillion in deals , their side of the deal upheld.
“I think those nations will be wondering what they can do in order to
deter future attacks,” said HA Hellyer, senior fellow in Middle East
studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security
Studies, “but also, what sort of security architecture they need to
now invest in instead of relying on a partner that hasn’t been able
to protect them even from one of its own allies.”
The damage to the trust between the US and its Gulf partners has been
done, though to what extent is not yet clear and rests largely on
President Trump’s reassurances to his allies and public messaging to
Israel. A wider question should be what kind of discouraging effect
this will have on future mediation efforts.
While Qatar has not closed the door on mediating peace in Gaza, the
talks are at best in limbo, at worst lying in the embers of Israel’s
most recent assassination attempt.
Hasan Alhasan, Senior Fellow of Middle East Policy at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies, said, “This is the kind of risk not
many countries in the region will be willing to stomach in return for a
mediating role.”
Qatar and Egypt have long been mediators between Israel and Hamas. Oman
has facilitated talks between Iran and the US and more successfully
between the US and the Houthis. The UAE has facilitated prisoner swaps
between Russia and Ukraine. Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a
venue for peace talks on several different conflicts.
The leaders of will be watching President Trump’s response closely in
the face of what appears to be US impotence in the Middle East. And a
belief long voiced by many in the region of Israel’s intention to
sabotage peace talks has only been fortified by Tuesday’s strikes.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly identify HA
Hellyer’s title and affiliation. Hellyer is a senior fellow in Middle
East studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and
Security Studies.
<- back to index
You are viewing proxied material from codevoid.de. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.