As 2024 comes to a close, Doha News looks back at this year’s key political events related to Qatar.
The year 2024 witnessed major political events particularly in the Middle East, from the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s aggression in Lebanon, to the fall of Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad regime.
As a regional diplomatic heavyweight, Qatar also witnessed a year full of political events, from numerous mediation efforts in conflicts to the restoration of its relations with Syria.
Gaza mediation
Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States, has been at the forefront of mediation efforts ever since Israel unleashed the war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
In January, Qatar and France brokered a deal between Hamas and Israel over the delivery of medical and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in exchange for delivering medication to Israeli captives.
Mediation efforts witnessed further challenges amid escalatory moves by Israel—including its brutal war on Lebanon—under its refusal to halt the onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
The expiration of last year’s week-long truce on December 1, 2023 was followed with a long period of stalemate with talks taking place in Doha and Cairo without a headway.
Weeks without progress, Qatar announced on November 10 that its mediation would remain stalled until both sides showed a willingness to negotiate. Then, on December 4, a source privy to the matter told Reuters that Qatar resumed its mediation.
On the same day, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Sky News that he was still optimistic in reaching a deal, noting that discussions have already been taking place with the incoming Trump administration.
Days later, reports pointed to visits to Doha by an Israeli delegation and CIA Director William Burns.
Ismail Haniyeh’s funeral
Israel’s escalatory moves this year included the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, complicating the already stalled negotiations.
Haniyeh’s body was laid to rest in Doha, where he was based, and his funeral saw the attendance of hundreds of thousands of mourners.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was the only Arab leader who attended the funeral prayers at the Imam Abdul Wahhab Mosque.
Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in addition to senior Qatari officials, including Sheikh Mohammed, was also in attendance.
During his speech at the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, Sheikh Tamim highlighted Israel’s lack of willingness to reach a deal, especially with the assassination of Haniyeh.
“It is a mediation amidst fierce war and complex circumstances, during which one party would not hesitate to assassinate counterpart political leaders with whom it negotiates,” the Amir said in his first such public remarks on the late Hamas chief’s killing.
Qatar’s prime minister had also questioned the Israeli assassination of Haniyeh.
“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side? Peace needs serious partners and a global stance against the disregard for human life,” he said on X on July 31.
Months later, Israel assassinated Haniyeh’s successor, Yahya Sinwar in Rafah, southern Gaza, on October 16.
Russia-Ukraine mediation
Qatar continued to reunite children separated by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine through its mediation efforts.
The Gulf state’s mediation resulted in a deal between Russia and Ukraine in April over the exchange of 48 children separated by the war.
A number of children and their families were at the Chedi Hotel, the meetings’ location, where they received a warm welcome from Qatar’s then Minister of State for International Cooperation, Lolwah Al-Khater.
Qatar announced the first such reunification on October 16, 2023, when it repatriated four Ukrainian children from Russia.
Prisoner release from Afghanistan
On February 25, Qatar mediated the release of Austrian citizen, Herbert Fritz, from authorities in Afghanistan following his detention in 2023.
Fritz had landed at the Doha International Airport on a Qatar Emiri Air Force jet and was welcomed by Austrian diplomats. Speaking to the press in Doha at the tarmac, Fritz expressed his gratitude for Qatar’s efforts in securing his release.
“I thank Qatar and I have loved Qatar since 2012 when it helped in Gaza,” Fritz said.
Qatar has been mediating between the Taliban and the US, a role that intensified after the former’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
Re-opening of Qatar’s embassy in Syria
The final days of the year took an unexpected turn with the fall of the decades-long Assad regime on December 8 following a surprise offensive by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Within days, Qatar re-opened its embassy in Damascus for the first time in 13 years after it severed ties with the Assad regime in 2011 over its violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.
Qatar had closed its embassy at the time and was the first to establish an embassy for the opposition in its capital, Doha.
The Gulf state has also maintained its unwavering stance against the Assad regime despite last year’s wave of regional normalisation that saw Syria’s return to the Arab League.
On December 23, a high-level Qatari delegation led by Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, met with Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed Al-Sharaa at the presidential palace in Damascus.
A Qatari official has told Doha News on the same day that a technical aviation team from Doha accompanied the Qatari delegation to assess the readiness of Damascus Airport to resume operations.
