Is Qatar “good”? Is Qatar “bad”? The issue concerns many people in the West – and even some countries in the Middle East – particularly because it appears that all roads lead to Doha. In particular, the negotiations about the release of hostages in Gaza and the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas or the still very tenuous threads of a negotiation about the future of the Gaza Strip.
Qatar generally has a very bad reputation in our country. It is linked to the World Cup scandals, complaints about serious industrial accidents, deaths on construction sites and human rights violations against immigrants hired to build the facilities for this sporting event. Then Qatargate, the investigation by the Belgian judiciary into bribes paid to some MPs that began just over a year ago. Finally, the “discovery” that Qatar has for years generously funded Hamas, whose political leaders live in luxury hotels in Doha.
This Italian and Western severity toward Qatar's misdeeds is minor compared to the hostility of some of its neighbors. Saudi Arabia and several Sunni-majority countries that share its political line, which has become anti-jihadist in recent years, have in the past accused Qatar of complicity and support for subversive forces in the region: from Iran to the various militias that arming the Ayatollahs of Tehran and favors. The charges include the role of Qatari television channel Al Jazeera, which Saudis and others view as a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. These complaints led to a serious diplomatic crisis: from 2017 to 2021, Qatar was subject to a severe embargo from its neighbors. Doha even feared a military invasion led by Saudi Arabia. Erdogan's Türkiye supported him by sending a military contingent.
Qatar's reputation as “bad” does not go back to today and is not just a Western prejudice. But we all need it: for its natural gas or for its role as an intermediary with Hamas.
A “misunderstood good guy” or an “indispensable villain”?
Is it a misunderstood asset? Is he an indispensable villain?
The answer lies in the middle.
Moral categories, the Manichaean vision, hardly fit geopolitical reality – and human history in general. Qatar is small and has a threatening neighbor, Iran, with which it has to be considerate. Qatar belongs to the border region between Sunni and Shiite Islam and has always been exposed to religious wars instigated by the fundamentalist regime in Tehran. Everyone has relied on the ambivalent role of Doha, not just Hamas, but also the West, America and Israel.
I was recently in Doha. Getting there, entering a hotel room and turning on the television by tuning it to Al Jazeera (which is censored in some neighboring countries) is the quickest way to get a sense of what a good part of the Arab world is like and the Great South of the world are experiencing the tragedy of Gaza. Completely different as at ours. Doha is one of the wonders of the Arabian-Persian Gulf. Just a few years ago, the only skyscraper you could see was the Sheraton Hotel. Today it is gone, invisible and tiny, hidden by a forest of brand new skyscrapers (some of them very beautiful) that create a “skyline” that Manhattan would envy. Modeled on Dubai, but with much more spectacular sea views. Recent miracle, boom still fresh and young.
Islam is more visible than in Dubai; there are many women who are completely veiled. But it is an Islam that does not condition those who come from outside, it coexists with other customs. There are only 350,000 real Qataris, just 10% of the population. The majority of the workforce is imported from other Muslim countries or with large Islamic minorities: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt. Almost all Qataris know each other, especially if they belong to the same tribe. And there are only a few original tribes.
It is a recent miracle: many who studied at university today (and perhaps abroad) have semi-illiterate parents, grandparents who had no electricity at home. The ancient economy – before the discovery of petroleum and especially natural gas, of which Qatar is now one of the world's leading producers – is well illustrated in the National Museum: it was based on a seasonal rotation between the profession of oyster and pearl collecting and sheep herding in the winter months. Today, in addition to its gas wealth, Doha challenges Dubai in its role as a hub, logistics and financial platform. The airline Qatar Airlines wants to compete with Emirates and offer global connections between all continents. It is also a candidate for attracting influxes of tourists, with desert excursions and Gulf cruises. It attracts sporting events, from the World Cup to Formula 1, to investments in museums. The soft version of Islam is made possible by the fact that the clergy have never exercised the political role typical of other countries such as Arabia and Iran. The imams recruited and overpaid abroad obey the local authorities.
The Constraints of Geography (and the American Military)
The Doha monarchy justifies its foreign policy by the constraints of its geographical location: this peninsula overlooks the Gulf opposite Iran, with which it shares the same gas field (even if Tehran can only exploit it minimally due to technological backwardness partly linked to sanctions). Qatar feels obliged to come to terms with such a cumbersome and powerful neighbor. At the same time, this peninsula is home to the largest American military base in the entire Middle East, an important resource that reports directly to CentCom, short for Central Command, based in Tampa, Florida. Qatar took over the role occupied by Saudi Arabia after the blasphemous and profane presence of US soldiers in the “Guardian of Mecca and Medina” area became a recurring theme of al-Qaeda’s jihad. By hosting the American military, Qatar has cemented a very special position in this part of the world.
In Italy, Qatar made headlines not only because of the World Cup and the violations of workers' rights on these construction sites or because of Qatargate. Immediately after the invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Putin, our hunger for natural gas pushed us to “queue” with many Western countries to request more supplies from Doha. Even before this export boom, Milanese had discovered Qatar's financial wealth thanks to investments in some of the most visible skyscrapers on the new city skyline. On the Costa Smeralda, the capital of Qatar today plays a role that suggests comparisons with another Islamic power that was at the origin of its tourism development (the Aga Khan).
The presence of Hamas leaders is tolerated by the USA and Israel
As for the presence of Hamas' political leaders in Doha: this was known, tolerated and even encouraged by America and Israel, which needed a neutral place to talk to this organization, however terrorist and subject to sanctions was. Financial flows from Qatar to Gaza (mainly to Hamas) were accepted or even encouraged by Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu more than ten years ago. During the Trump administration, American and Taliban envoys also met in Doha to negotiate the terms of the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan. If there is a place where the devil and holy water can meet on neutral ground, this is it.
When you visit, you certainly don't get the impression that Doha is a dangerous, worrying or dark place. On the contrary: order, cleanliness, well-being, efficiency, security, discipline. In this sense, a Western ambassador describes to me Qatar's calling to be a kind of Switzerland of the Middle East. Everyone has access there, everyone has space, even the most extreme and radical forces: as long as they don't cause any damage on their territory. Hamas can sow terror elsewhere, but if it wants to immediately collect its billions from Doha, it must treat it like a free zone where it doesn't even dare to park in a forbidden place.
Qatar has paid a price for its “corsair” foreign policy but has not changed it, and its role as Switzerland in the Gulf is reinforced today by the war in Gaza. Al Jazeera's line has not changed either. Despite many criticisms and protests, this television continues to provide information that is as comprehensive and professional as it is biased. From Gaza there are almost exclusively Hamas versions of space. Al Jazeera's journalists – some of whom have risked their lives at the risk of their mission – are excellent and at the same time biased. Al Jazeera's newscasts are a constant bombardment of one-sided images: the victims are Palestinians, the executioners are Israelis. It is high quality information and brainwashing. Much of the Arab and Islamic world – with the exception of the countries that “cover” Al Jazeera – has this news source and knows no other.
The west seen from Qatar
A manager of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, which has invested in the skyscrapers of Milan and the Costa Smeralda, agreed to meet me in a luxury shopping center: it is made entirely of white Carrara marble and looks like a replica of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan There is a McLaren showroom at the entrance. It is a place frequented by the upper-middle class, but the women are almost all very veiled and dressed entirely in black, some with full face coverings that leave only a slit open for the eyes. He and his wife lived and studied in America and Europe. She is a biogeneticist but wears traditional clothing and her head is covered. They are very nice, sociable, speak perfect English, we have a lot in common: they have traveled around the world, they are at home in New York and London, we watch the same films and TV series. In some ways they are part of “our world,” in other ways they are distant and irreducible. When I ask him for his opinion on American and European foreign policy in the Middle East, he doesn't hesitate to dismiss it with the words: “Volatile, wavering, unreliable.” In other words, from Qatar's perspective, our ethical standards are whether the country good or bad, of little interest or seem unrealistic.