How to Get the Hostages Released: The Cure for Biden’s Disastrous Qatar Policy

By Robert Williams, GATESTONE                                    7 March 2024

Pictured: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha on February 6, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

“Qatar has been playing a deadly double game with the U.S. for many years. It supports all Islamist terrorist organizations (ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hamas, and Hezbollah).” — Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI), November 6, 2023.

• Many Americans believe that they owe Qatar for its hosting of the U.S. CENTCOM base. The truth is precisely the opposite: It is Qatar that owes the U.S., for locating this base there. Without this base’s presence in the country, Qatar would disappear within less than a week – its neighbors would eat it up.” — Yigal Carmon, November 6, 2023.
• “A single statement by a U.S. Department of Defense official, about relocating – or even considering relocating – this base from Qatar to another country that is not a state sponsor of terrorism is all it would take to get the American hostages released. Even indicating that the U.S. has other options besides Qatar would do it… Qatar is extremely and incredibly sensitive to being exposed in any way as a terror-sponsoring state.” — Yigal Carmon, November 6, 2023.
• “Qatar knows what it would mean for it to be defined as what it is: It means being wiped off the map. Qatar supports Hamas, but it will not commit suicide for it. Show Qatar where this support is taking it, and it will bring about the release of the hostages – because Qatar is Hamas’s lifeline and Hamas will do Qatar’s will.” — Yigal Carmon, November 6, 2023.
• “Just one demonstration in front of the Qatari Embassy, with posters stating that Qatar is a state sponsor of terrorism, will prompt Qatar to get the American hostages released.” — Yigal Carmon, November 6, 2023
• Instead… in January 2024, Biden “quietly” entered into an agreement with Qatar that extends the US military presence in the terror supporting Gulf state for another 10 years. This agreement needs to be immediately rescinded.
• Meanwhile, Qatar has shown its true face…. At the 2024 Munich Security Conference, Qatar called for an immediate ceasefire, “without preconditions” thereby showing that the hostage negotiations that it was supposed to broker were mainly about saving its client, the terrorist group Hamas.

Despite the presumed murder of more than 31 of the roughly 134 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity and the continued refusal of Hamas to free any more, the Biden administration nevertheless continues, embarrassingly, to thank the Islamist, terror-sponsoring Gulf state of Qatar for its “efforts” since October 7.

In December, US Vice President Kamala Harris thanked Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, “for his efforts in securing a deal between Israel and Hamas that provided an extended pause in the fighting which resulted in the release of more than 100 hostages, including Americans.”

At the end of January, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also “expressed gratitude for Qatar’s indispensable mediation efforts, especially since October 7… The leaders reaffirmed the strength and importance of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral relationship in promoting regional security and stability, founded on a history of over 50 years of close cooperation.”

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