Deutsche Welle :
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 reach a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza conflict.
“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 fighter 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.
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 fighter Hamas group, instead of seeing it move from Syria to Iran, where it would have been far less accessible.