Israel's attack will not deter Qatar from its role as a good-faith mediator

Qatar's capital Doha on Wednesday. Qatar denied receiving advance warning from the US of Tuesday's Israeli strikes. AFP

Condemnation for Israel’s deadly air strikes on Doha on Tuesday came swift and it came severe. In a phone call with the Emir of Qatar, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed reportedly “expressed the UAE’s condemnation of this blatant attack”. He also “stressed that the attack constitutes a violation of the sovereignty of sisterly Qatar and all international laws and norms and undermines the security and stability of the region”.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said it was a “criminal act and a flagrant violation of international law”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar”. He added: “All parties must work towards achieving a permanent ceasefire” in Gaza, “not destroying it”. The leaders of other countries followed, including France, Lebanon, Britain, Turkey, Tunisia, Italy, Malaysia and too many others to mention.

Even US President Donald Trump was said to be furious that he only found out about the strikes from the US military, posting on Truth Social: “I immediately directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack. I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend and feel very badly about the location of the attack.”

It was quite clearly an outrageous and illegal act, made all the more dangerous since the Qatari authorities had no time to try to protect their population. There will be some who will not mourn the five Hamas members who, according to the group, died in the attack. But they should know that a Qatari internal security force soldier, Corporal Bader Saad Mohammed Al-Humaidi Al-Dosari – let us honour and remember his name – was also killed, while a number of his colleagues suffered injuries.

It is extremely lucky that more were not murdered or mangled. The building that was targeted is in a residential area, punctuated with embassies and schools, with Doha’s West Bay Lagoon to the north, and Katara Cultural Village and beach to the east. I know it well, as my wife and I raised a growing family in the city in the early 2010s, and we have returned to what will always be a home-from-home for us numerous times since.

My elder son went to nursery school close to the site of the bombing. In April, we spent a family holiday nearby, at a hotel one newspaper breathlessly reports “was actually the likely nerve centre of Hamas”. (Translation: the group’s officials may have had a meeting there.)

On Tuesday, we called and messaged friends and colleagues in Doha. They were shaken, angry but, thank goodness, all safe and sound. Outsiders sometimes paint Gulf cities as conurbations of segregation and gilded skyscrapers. We know better. Of course there is great wealth, but the parks, souqs and beaches are great levellers, where the well-paid office worker may run into the security guard who looks after his building with his young children in tow, and exchange a warm hello.

You can get the finest cuisine known to humanity, but all, from the highest to the lowest, flock to the humble karak and chapati stall. In short, these are living, breathing cities, places where people of all walks of life strive and sometimes succeed, laugh and grieve, like any other. And Israel struck at the very heart of this on Tuesday. The world is right to be horrified and enraged.

A continent-size question mark now hangs over the prospect of any further ties with Israel. Hearts already cold with fury about the Benjamin Netanyahu government’s campaign in Gaza will harden further. “Israel in a week attacked: 1. Tunisia 2. Lebanon 3. Palestine 4. Yemen 5. Syria 6. Qatar. No one is safe from this terrorist state,” was the message a senior Qatari sent me on Tuesday night. Was that over the top? Well, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also described the strikes on Doha as “state terrorism” the same evening.

What next after Israel’s strike on Doha?

09:22

It is hard to say how any peace process worth the name is left after Israel tried to kill the Hamas negotiators who were considering a US ceasefire deal – to which Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his government had agreed only hours before. The bombings have been described as an attack on diplomacy itself.

“This operation is against Qatar, which is leading the mediation efforts, and against the Hamas leadership that is discussing the American proposal,” said the Palestinian former minister Mustafa Barghouti. “Is there worse shamelessness?” It demonstrated Israel’s “determination to strike all efforts made to achieve stability and security in the countries of the region”, said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. Can anyone in the region trust Israel’s word or intentions ever again?

Can anyone in the region trust Israel’s word or intentions ever again?

As for Qatar, it has now suffered attacks on its soil from Iran and Israel in under three months. But if anyone thought that might cause the state to diverge from its mission to promote mediation, as it has done for more than 20 years, not just in the Middle East but in the Horn and North of Africa, and from Chad to Tajikistan, Qatar’s Prime Minister set them right on Tuesday.

“Mediation in Qatari diplomacy is part of its identity,” he told reporters. “It will continue, and nothing will deter us from persisting in this role” for the sake of the stability of the region and its peoples, he said. In terms of Qatar’s role vis-a-vis Israel and Gaza, he said – unsurprisingly – “For current talks, I do not think there’s something valid right now after what we saw from today’s attack.”

For the broader role, I spoke to my friend and colleague Salman Shaikh, founder and chief executive of The Shaikh Group, a peacebuilding and mediation organisation that is supported by the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other European countries. “Qatar will double down and won’t be dissuaded in any way by the attack,” he told me while on a plane to Doha. “Mediation of different conflicts with the respect of the parties involved is a core part of their foreign policy, it is written into their constitution, and the rest of the world values it more and more.”

The question now, Mr Shaikh said, is what more the Gulf collectively and like-minded countries and traditional mediation actors like the UK and EU can do to come together to redouble their efforts and support Qatar – both in reacting to the Israeli attack, and in its ongoing and future mediation work.

Turning to the bigger picture, and to the external actor with the biggest influence on the region, not just Mr Trump but all Americans need to consider a choice. Given the incredible restraint Qatar has shown, the immediate solidarity the GCC has demonstrated, and the reckless and deathly impunity with which Israel has been acting, which is the US’s true friend and ally in the Middle East? Is it Israel? Or is it the “Gulf 3” or G3, as the Emirati political scientist Dr Abdulkhaleq Abdulla recently referred to Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in these pages?

So long as the government of Mr Netanyahu is in office, I would say that there could only be one answer.