U.S. ties to Qatar in spotlight, and under scrutiny, following strategic dialogue

Qatar’s key role as a mediator in the Middle East, while Americans are held hostage in Gaza, cements Washington’s reliance on Doha. And while Qatar is actively negotiating a deal, analysts and activists disagree as to whether public pressure on Qatar would help or hurt things for the hostages.

“If our priority objective right now is to get the hostages home, provide for Israeli security and to mitigate civilian harm, and get to a place where a pathway to a two-state solution, some sort of viable solution, is somewhere out there on the horizon, I don’t see how it makes a lot of sense to be calling into question right now the U.S.-Qatar relationship or trying to coerce different facts on the ground vis-a-vis their relationship with Hamas,” said Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security.

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