Al-Qahtani had emerged as a key figure in Qatar’s past mediation efforts, especially in the Afghanistan file.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has appointed Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani, Qatar’s ambassador to the Netherlands, as a member of the court, the Qatari foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.
Established in 1899 in The Hague, the PCA is the oldest international institution for settling international disputes.
Between 2005 and 2008, Al-Qahtani served as the Deputy Permanent Representative at Qatar’s Mission to the United Nations. He then served as the legal advisor to the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs between 2010 and 2011.
Between 2011 and 2012, he served as the Chief De Cabinet of the Presidency of the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly.
The Qatari diplomat then assumed his position as Qatar’s ambassador to the Netherlands on November 29, 2023.
Before his current role, Al-Qahtani also served as the Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Counterterrorism and Mediation in Conflict Resolution.
Al-Qahtani had emerged as a key figure in Qatar’s past mediation efforts, especially in the Afghanistan file.
During his time in office, Qatar played a key mediating role by bringing together members of the Taliban and the former Afghan government for talks in 2020 to reach a peaceful settlement.
During the same year, Qatar brought the United States and the Taliban together following more than a decade of war, resulting in the Doha Agreement.
Qatar continued to hold mediation talks until the last stretch, just days before the Taliban captured Kabul in 2021.
Al-Qahtani had also travelled back and forth between Doha and Kabul as the events unfolded to maintain dialogue with the current Taliban-led administration.
He also witnessed Qatar’s historic evacuation efforts and the resumption of operations at Kabul’s airport, just days after the Taliban takeover and the full withdrawal of foreign forces.
In 2022, he was also involved in mediation efforts in Chad’s political file, when Doha gathered more than 50 sides for talks, which ended with the Doha Peace Agreement.
The Qatari diplomat also earned the United Nations’ ‘2020 Best Negotiator Award’ in recognition of his role in settling disputes globally. Al-Qahtani’s diplomatic work also earned him the Universal Peace Federation’s Ambassador of Peace Award in 2015.
In February, Al-Qahtani represented Qatar during a hearing at the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
At the time, he voiced Qatar’s condemnation of the application of double standards towards the Israeli occupation of Palestine and stressed that the “international legal order is under threat.”
Then on March 7, the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) elected Al-Qahtani as the Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Council of the organisation for the period 2024-2025.
Al-Qahtani holds a PhD in Public International Law from the United Kingdom and a Master of Law (LLM) from the United States. He had shared his expertise in numerous journals.
