Active and cautious, Qatar’s diplomacy has been focused on peace-building efforts and regional cooperation regarding the Syrian conflict. In recent clarifications, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid bin Mohammed al-Ansari clarified Qatar’s possible hosting of a meeting in the Astana format. Despite previous speculations by Iranian officials, however, no such meeting has yet been officially confirmed to take place in Doha early December. On the contrary, Al-Ansari stressed Qatar’s willingness to work with regional powers in this case, using concrete examples such as Russia, Turkey, and Iran while reiterating the commitment of the country to initiatives fostering peace and de-escalation in Syria.
Astana talks continue in casters as a forum for peace in Syria, conceived under the auspices of Russia, Turkey, and Iran, with the initial launching in 2017. Even so, Qatar has been minorly engaged and has mostly reserved its firepower into multi-option diplomacy and Arab consensus over issues such as Syria’s return to the Arab League.
For all these years, Qatar has been holding discussions for dialogue as the best option to resolve the conflict in Syria, while it has not concretely committed itself to any specific meetings or negotiations, without really outlining its framework but has expressed its interest in improving the peace efforts from wherever.
How is this so? Because it is possible to act as an Astana talk-a-cast-in context of peace in Syria under the auspices of Russia, Turkey, and Iran. Yet, Qatar has been minorly engaged and has mostly reserved its firepower into multi-option diplomacy and Arab consensus over issues such as Syria’s return to the Arab League. Qatar has long favored dialogue as a means of best addressing the conflict in Syria.
Thus, it has not specifically committed itself to a format of meetings or negotiations but has expressed interest in improving the peace efforts from wherever possible. Recently, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that high-ranking representatives of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Qatar could possibly hold an extensive meeting during the Doha Forum scheduled for December 7-8. This proposed summit is viewed as an opportunity for regional powers to deliberate with each other on the future of Syria and the broader stability of the Middle East in regard to current military processes within Syria itself.
The timing of the Syrian peace process talks has coincided with increasing excitement in Syria, where reports say that the opposition has staged major offensives in parts such as Aleppo, acquiring fairly important areas that used to be under the control of government forces. Such occurrences show the fragility of any sort of peace agreement and the complications involved in efforts geared toward achieving a lasting stability.
Mediating Role of Qatar in the Syrian peace process has so much importance in the region because this country prepares itself long ago, already been shown as neutral even for arranging dialogues between conflicting faction. It showed beautifully as the mediation of Qatar in every problem mostly for the Middle East like Sudan and Gaza. Rich and having diplomatic relationship, Qatar could be a major player in an attempt at stabilizing Syria but is cautious about choosing sides in military engagement.
Qatar has not so far declared to host Astana-format meetings, but its diplomatic doors lie wide open for cooperation. This is fully consistent with Qatar’s foreign policy-creating regional cooperation and conflict resolution through negotiation and peaceful dialogue. Thus, there is changing course of events in Syria, putting emphasis on peace initiatives for this nation.
However, Qatar’s strong international connections, together with such diplomatic flexibility, will guarantee that this small player will always be at the center of shaping the future of the ongoing Syrian peace process in the end, despite the fate of the evolving dynamics of the Astana talks.
