Qatar’s Foray Into Gaza Politics: Bad for Iran, Good for Israel?
Qatar’s Foray Into Gaza Politics: Bad for Iran, Good for Israel?
The monarch of oil-rich Arab gulf nation Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, this week became the first foreign head of state to visit Gaza’s militant Islamist rulers since they won power over the Palestinian territory in 2007. The emir, who has long deployed Qatar’s astounding energy wealth toward outsized international influence, also handed over $400 million in Gazan reconstruction aid. Hamas, long seen as an ally of Iran, opposes Israel, sometimes violently.
Nothing dashes hopes and humbles would-be peacemakers quite like the Israel-Palestine peace process, so there’s little reason to think that al-Thani will succeed where more experienced statesmen have failed. Still, there is some reason to think that Qatar’s outreach to Hamas could do some good for a part of the world that badly needs it. Here’s what some Middle East analysts are saying about it.