Whether Qatar will play a role in any negotiations between Washington and Tehran remains to be seen
Trump’s Gaza proposal has sent the Arab world scrambling to try to come up with an alternative. But if they don’t manage to come up with something acceptable to Trump, he has made clear that he is ready to proceed with his plan. In either scenario — an Arab alternative, or Trump’s takeover proposal — the Gulf state of Qatar is likely to play a leading role.
Qatar has long been a foreign policy paradox; it hosts a major US military base in the region, but is also a leading financial supporter of Hamas and other terror-linked groups. Qatar frequently serves as an intermediary between America and hostile actors — notably, Iran.
Whether Qatar will play a role in any negotiations between Washington and Tehran remains to be seen. Trump has left the door wide open for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and he has supported Israel’s policy of cutting off the tentacles of Iran’s proxies. At the same time, several administration officials, as well as the president himself, have increasingly spoken of reopening talks with Tehran in the hopes of finding a diplomatic solution that ends its rapidly advancing nuclear threat.
To gauge the chances of success for President Trump’s Middle East initiatives, Mishpacha spoke with two experts from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a foreign policy think tank in Washington. Natalie Ecanow is a senior research analyst focusing on the Gulf states. Behnam Ben Taleblu serves as senior director of FDD’s Iran program.
Create a free account to keep reading.
