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One might have thought that after the horrific savagery of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing catastrophe in Gaza, the world would have learned to approach Qatari pronouncements with a healthy dose of scepticism. Qatar, after all, is not merely a bystander in this tragedy but a principal enabler of the very Hamas terror machine that ignited it, hosting its leaders in luxury while pretending to play the impartial peacemaker. Yet here we are, in the autumn of 2025, with Majed al-Ansari, adviser to Qatar's prime minister and spokesperson for the foreign ministry, issuing fresh warnings in The Guardian about the Strip's potential slide into a “no war, no peace” purgatory. As if the Qatari capital's five-star accommodations for jihadists hadn't already prolonged the agony.
"We don’t want to reach a situation of no war, no peace," al-Ansari cautioned, his words dripping with the earnestness of a diplomat whose government has bankrolled the very impasse he decries. The scenario he sketches is grimly plausible: Israeli troops lingering in Gaza, not out of imperial whim but necessity, because no sane soul, least of all the international community, with its track record of feckless interventions from Somalia to Afghanistan, would volunteer to plant a peacekeeping flag in a hellscape riddled with Hamas tunnels and booby-traps.
"There is a need for the international community to go in, assess the damage, start thinking about reconstruction, working on reconstruction, and to formally keep the peace," al-Ansari elaborated. "This is what will significantly shift the whole process from war to the day after.” Ah, yes, the "day after," that mythical horizon perpetually receding like a mirage in the Negev.
One can almost hear the echoes of past follies: the Oslo Accords' grand promises, the Dayton Agreement's hollow vows, all crumbling under the weight of Palestinian rejectionism and Arab-state indifference. Qatar, ever the optimist (or opportunist), pins its hopes on a UN Security Council resolution to "mandate an administration and an international force in Gaza, that we would be able to stabilize the situation."
"In principle, a lot of the countries in the region and beyond have agreed to be part of this," he continued, "but in practice that needs a very concrete mandate for the force." In principle: where all the world's virtue-signaling converges, a cocktail party of platitudes. In practice: the yawning chasm where good intentions meet the rubble-strewn reality of Gaza, where "stabilization" means dodging RPGs and unearthing IEDs. It's a reminder that the UN's grand designs have a habit of evaporating when the first suicide vest goes off.
Al-Ansari didn't shy from the hostage horrors either, those Israeli families still chained to the barbarism of October 7. "There are a lot of challenges before we are able to dispense with stage one [of the deal]," he admitted. "Including the difficulty of excavating the remains of those [hostages] who were killed and ascertaining their identities, and the violations that result in the death of Palestinians every day at the hands of IDF soldiers." Here, in a single breath, the Qatari worldview crystalizes: the murderers' handiwork lamented, but swiftly pivoted to Israel's defensive operations as "violations." One searches in vain for mention of Hamas's deliberate use of civilians as human shields, or the rivers of blood from their unprovoked assault. But then, symmetry is not a virtue in Doha's diplomacy.
Lest we forget Qatar's own brushes with the conflict's sharper edges, al-Ansari revisited the IDF's audacious strike on September 9 against Hamas kingpins luxuriating on Qatari soil. "It was designed to push us out, not only out of these [Gaza] talks, but to push us out as an internationally trusted mediator," he claimed. "We were working on more than 10 mediations on the day of the attack." Trusted mediator? From the nation that has funneled billions to Hamas's coffers while lecturing the West on human rights? The irony is thicker than the fog of war itself. "This was not an attack we could brush off and continue doing the work that we were doing," al-Ansari insisted, revealing that Washington had to issue ironclad assurances against further incursions on Qatari turf before the talks could limp back to life. One wonders: if Doha's salons are so sacrosanct for "peace," why not extradite the Hamas butchers who plot from them? Or is the real "no war, no peace" the endless charade Qatar orchestrates, prolonging suffering while burnishing its image as the Middle East's indispensable broker?
In the end, al-Ansari's warnings serve less as prophecy than as a plea: spare us the consequences of the monsters we've harboured. Gaza's fate hangs not on UN resolutions or Qatari bromides, but on Israel's resolve to dismantle the terror infrastructure that birthed this nightmare. Anything less, and the Strip risks not limbo, but an eternal graveyard of squandered chances.
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"In principle, a lot of the countries in the region and beyond have agreed to be part of this," he continued, "but in practice that needs a very concrete mandate for the force." In principle: where all the world's virtue-signaling converges, a cocktail party of platitudes. In practice: the yawning chasm where good intentions meet the rubble-strewn reality of Gaza, where "stabilization" means dodging RPGs and unearthing IEDs. It's a reminder that the UN's grand designs have a habit of evaporating when the first suicide vest goes off.
Al-Ansari didn't shy from the hostage horrors either, those Israeli families still chained to the barbarism of October 7. "There are a lot of challenges before we are able to dispense with stage one [of the deal]," he admitted. "Including the difficulty of excavating the remains of those [hostages] who were killed and ascertaining their identities, and the violations that result in the death of Palestinians every day at the hands of IDF soldiers." Here, in a single breath, the Qatari worldview crystalizes: the murderers' handiwork lamented, but swiftly pivoted to Israel's defensive operations as "violations." One searches in vain for mention of Hamas's deliberate use of civilians as human shields, or the rivers of blood from their unprovoked assault. But then, symmetry is not a virtue in Doha's diplomacy.
Lest we forget Qatar's own brushes with the conflict's sharper edges, al-Ansari revisited the IDF's audacious strike on September 9 against Hamas kingpins luxuriating on Qatari soil. "It was designed to push us out, not only out of these [Gaza] talks, but to push us out as an internationally trusted mediator," he claimed. "We were working on more than 10 mediations on the day of the attack." Trusted mediator? From the nation that has funneled billions to Hamas's coffers while lecturing the West on human rights? The irony is thicker than the fog of war itself. "This was not an attack we could brush off and continue doing the work that we were doing," al-Ansari insisted, revealing that Washington had to issue ironclad assurances against further incursions on Qatari turf before the talks could limp back to life. One wonders: if Doha's salons are so sacrosanct for "peace," why not extradite the Hamas butchers who plot from them? Or is the real "no war, no peace" the endless charade Qatar orchestrates, prolonging suffering while burnishing its image as the Middle East's indispensable broker?
In the end, al-Ansari's warnings serve less as prophecy than as a plea: spare us the consequences of the monsters we've harboured. Gaza's fate hangs not on UN resolutions or Qatari bromides, but on Israel's resolve to dismantle the terror infrastructure that birthed this nightmare. Anything less, and the Strip risks not limbo, but an eternal graveyard of squandered chances.
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