Qatar PM says peace requires talking to everyone, including Hamas

Qatar’s prime minister has made a blunt case for engaging non-state actors if the region ever hopes to see peace, arguing that isolating groups like Hamas is unrealistic diplomacy. Speaking with US journalist Tucker Carlson at the Doha Forum on Sunday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said negotiations cannot progress if major players are kept out of the room.

“You cannot resolve or reach a solution if you have no one speaking to non-state actors,” he said. He noted that Qatar’s relationship with Hamas stretches back more than a decade and that the group’s office in Doha was opened in 2012 at Washington’s request to ease communication and help facilitate ceasefires and aid to Gaza.

Qatar has played a similar role with the Taliban, hosting their political office since 2013, also at the urging of the US during the war in Afghanistan. Doha has long positioned itself as a mediator capable of speaking to actors others refuse to touch.

Sheikh Mohammed pushed back against claims that Qatari funds have benefited Hamas. The money, he insisted, goes to Gaza civilians.

“Politicians are trying to use this for short-term political gains… to fuel their narratives,” he said. He added that aid transfers were transparent and known to the US, and that Israel itself facilitated them. “This communication has led to ceasefires, has led to the release of hostages, has led to alleviating the suffering of the people over there.”

He also condemned Israel’s strike on Qatar in September, calling it an “unethical move”. Mediation, he said, is meant to provide safe ground for warring sides, and having a mediator attacked by one of the parties was “unprecedented”. According to him, Donald Trump was taken aback by the incident and immediately reached out through advisers, expressing frustration and disappointment.