Qatar Offered to Expel Hamas; Blinken Said No

[Doc7505]

Qatar Offered to Expel Hamas; Blinken Said No​

Qatar Offered to Expel Hamas; Blinken Said No

hotair.com

15 Mar 2024 ~~ By David Strom

I have long been wondering about Qatar's willingness to host Hamas' leadership post-10/7.
As non-Western as Qatar is, the Emirate has been working assiduously to court Western approval and is hardly a radical Islamist state. This is not to suggest the regime is liberal or Liberal, but rather that they aren't exactly Iranian-style fanatics. The state is pretty much what you would expect in a country that is in a dangerous region filled with radicals but with an elite who are Western-educated and resolutely capitalist.
I had long suspected that Western governments had given implicit approval for Qatar's hosting of the radical Islamist terrorist group's leaders in order to use it as a back-channel to Hamas.

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That this story leaked is likely due to Qatar's frustration with the enduring criticism it has suffered since 10/7. The country has been accused of coddling Hamas' leaders--and no doubt it sure looks that way--and given the country's obvious efforts to court Westerners, it surely rankled.

When Blinken began his own remarks, he didn’t respond directly to the emir’s proposal but did go on to say that he thought it would be better for Qatar to use its contacts with Hamas — through the office it allowed the terror group to establish in Doha in 2012 at Washington’s behest — to mediate between the Gaza war parties to secure a hostage deal, the officials recalled. They added that the US secretary of state also clarified that it would not be “business as usual” for Hamas in Qatar once the conflict concludes.​

~Snip~​

This is why I have refrained from criticizing Qatar--not that they would care in the least if I did. I suspected that they were actually cooperating with the US and perhaps Israel by making it possible to negotiate and that everybody saw having Hamas leaders in Qatar was better than some of the alternatives.
Much trickier for the US is Turkey's Erdogan's outright support for Hamas. As a NATO country increasingly hostile to Western values, Turkey is a huge diplomatic and security problem. Erdogan has been aligning himself with Russia while remaining part of the NATO alliance. It is a partner in the F-35 program and is working with Russia's military at the same time.

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Commentary:
Who the heck is driving that DC clown car?
While the Hamas leaders and brains of the Oct 7th massacre remain in Qatar they are relaticely safe. That is why Blinken is saying No!
Mossad knows where they are and is just biding their time.
Meanwhile, both Biden, his flunky Blinken and Erdogan of Turkey continue to play a duplicitous game.