Why Does Qatar Keep Helping Terrorists?

By Jonathan Shanzer & Natalie Ecanow

Saturday, February 01, 2025

 

Just hours before leaving power, the Biden administration agreed to trade a Taliban prisoner for two Americans held in Afghanistan. Qatar facilitated the swap. Twelve hundred miles away, the Qatar-brokered Gaza cease-fire took effect. Hamas released three Israeli hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinian terrorists.

 

Qatar is looking more and more like an advocate for terrorist groups engaged in human-trafficking by the day.

 

Upon their release, the two Americans in Taliban custody — Ryan Corbett and William McKenty — departed Kabul for Doha, where U.S. officials were waiting to hand over notorious Afghan narco-terrorist Khan Mohammed. Mohammed was serving two life sentences in a California prison for distributing heroin and opium to assist the Taliban. He is the first convicted narco-terrorist in American history. At the time of his conviction, the U.S. Department of Justice described Mohammed as a “violent jihadist” bent on killing American soldiers. Locals reportedly showered Mohammed with garlands when he arrived back in his home province in eastern Afghanistan.

 

The celebration was emblematic of a tale that has become routine: Qatar moving people on behalf of terrorist groups in exchange for concessions from Western governments.

 

And the beat goes on. As the Qatari-brokered Gaza cease-fire took effect on January 19, one day before Donald Trump was set to take office, Hamas freed three Israeli hostages. Twenty-four hours later, Israel released dozens of Palestinian prisoners under the terms of the cease-fire deal. The former inmates, many of them convicted on terrorism charges, received a hero’s homecoming in the West Bank. Droves of Palestinians waving the flags of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad greeted the returning prisoners with cheers.

 

To make matters worse, as the cease-fire took effect, thousands of Hamas fighters — uniformed and armed — deployed throughout Gaza and began to reassert control over the strip. Hamas terrorists flashed V-signs in celebration of their comeback. Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of Hamas’s politburo based in Qatar, boasted that Israeli troops “were steadfast on the ground for 470 days,” but “they didn’t succeed.” Hamas’s message was clear: We’re back in business. And for that, the terror group owed thanks to its patrons in Doha.

 

The prisoner swaps continue. This week, Hamas released four female Israeli soldiers that Hamas kidnapped on October 7, 2023. In turn, an estimated 200 additional terrorists were released. In total, Israel is expected to release approximately 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 of the 94 remaining hostages — some of whom will return in body bags.

 

Negotiations for the second phase are scheduled to begin on Day 16 of the cease-fire. However, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani is reportedly “pushing” to kickstart the next round of negotiations even sooner. Doha is on a charm offensive. Al-Thani even appeared on Israel’s Channel 12 to appeal to the Israeli public.

 

Doha is eager to end the war in a manner that will ensure Hamas’s survival. This is hardly surprising considering that Qatar has showered Hamas with hundreds of millions of dollars and sheltered the group’s senior leaders for over a decade. What is surprising: that the Trump administration, like the Biden administration before it, appears content to treat Qatar as an honest broker in this deal, even as it is plainly apparent that Qatar is not a disinterested party.

 

But it’s even worse than it appears.

 

The disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which resulted in the tragic death of 13 American service members at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport, not to mention one of the most embarrassing episodes in American military history, was brokered by the Qataris. Indeed, it was the Qataris who allowed the establishment of a Taliban embassy in Doha to negotiate that arrangement.

 

In August 2023, Qatar helped broker a deal that saw Iran release five American citizens imprisoned in the Islamic Republic on spurious charges in exchange for an equal number of Iranian nationals in U.S. custody. The Biden administration agreed to pay a $6 billion ransom in the form of unfrozen Iranian oil revenue that had been locked in South Korea since 2018. Tehran released the Americans in September 2023 after the money was transferred to Qatar’s central bank.

 

Today, the Qataris are actively promoting the new leaders of Syria as legitimate actors on the world stage, despite Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham’s long-standing ties to al-Qaeda. Qatar is paying the salaries of the new government’s employees, among other support.

 

Doha’s success with the Taliban has even caught Canada’s attention: At Ottawa’s request, the Qataris just negotiated the release of a former Canadian soldier who was arrested by the Taliban in November 2024.

 

There is obviously great temptation in Washington to work with the government of Qatar. CENTCOM maintains a significant base in the country. The Biden administration named Qatar a “Major Non-NATO Ally.” And the temptation grows ever greater in Washington as Qatar spends tens of billions of dollars in the United States, from law firms to public relations agencies to universities and Wall Street, to sustain its access and influence.

 

The dangers of this dynamic must be better understood by Americans. Qatar remains one of the world’s foremost proponents of violent Islamist movements and states. A course correction is needed. The Trump administration might start with an official policy review. At minimum, we must cease allowing Qatar to facilitate prisoner swaps that benefit terrorists. Beyond that, America would benefit from more stringent standards to help us differentiate friend from foe.