Everything You Wanted to Know About Qatar But Were Afraid to Ask

📸: Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at a press conference in Doha on October 13, 2023. (Getty Images)

Host Cliff May is joined by FDD experts Jonathan Schanzer and Richard Goldberg to discuss Qatar donning the facade of ‘mediator’ and ‘peacemaker.’ The reality is rather different.

They unpack Doha’s bad behavior, including how a plethora of bad actors — e.g., Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Islamic Republic of Iran (or, as Jon calls it, “the cantina scene from Star Wars”) — are aided and abetted by Qatar; the historical context of Qatar’s rise to a “permissive jurisdiction” for jihadis; and the tough reckoning that awaits Washington as a result of President Biden designating Qatar “a major non-NATO ally.” Astonishingly and distressingly, a key U.S. military base in Qatar has been renewed for ten years, and the U.S. ambassador to Qatar has called 2023 “the greatest year ever in U.S.-Qatari relations,” despite the high probability that Doha has the blood of at least 34 Americans on its hands.

Correction: It is the Attorney General Alliance (AGA), not the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), that receives funds from Qatar. More here.