Obama-era deal to allow Hamas office in Qatar backfired on US: experts
The US has used the Hamas office in Doha to negotiate for the release of hostages with Qatari help
By Peter Aitken Fox News
Published November 26, 2023 4:00am EST
The U.S. played a direct role in helping set up the Hamas office in Qatar during the Obama administration, seeking appeasement and soft diplomacy but ultimately failing to control the terrorist group as it festered in Gaza.
"For many years now, both the United States and Israel have been living in a policy fantasy world where we have tolerated Hamas' existence in Doha and believed that Doha would be a moderating influence," Richard Goldberg, the coordinator for the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran, told Fox News Digital.
"That thesis was disproven on Oct. 7, so whatever has happened in the last few years, it doesn't matter because Oct. 7 now stands as the new reality," Goldberg, also senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. "It disproves anybody's hypotheses that Hamas would somehow become a governing entity, not a terrorist group."
Qatar's Ambassador to Washington Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that his government set up the Hamas political office in Doha "after a request from Washington to establish indirect lines of communication" in 2012. He claimed the office "frequently" served in mediation efforts and helped de-escalate conflicts between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"The presence of the Hamas office shouldn’t be confused with endorsement but rather establishes an important channel for indirect communication," the minister wrote.
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