Peace talks call for a truly even hand

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WA Today

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Date

June 23, 2013

Paul McGeough

Chief foreign correspondent

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emIllustration: David Rowe/em

Illustration: David Rowe

They’re grown men, the President and the Emir. So it is inevitable that over a dinner or perhaps in a frank chat some time soon, the US President and his Qatari counterpart will swap notes on the unfolding, or the unravelling, of the Arab Spring.

They’ll take a helicopter view of the region – the uncertain aftermath of revolution in the states where it all started, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. There might be an awkward chuckle about Syria – how did Washington and al-Qaeda end up on the same side?

There’ll be a difficult moment over Bahrain. Despite the injustice of a minority Sunni monarchy lording it over the majority Shiite population, the Emir will understand Barack Obama needs Bahrain as a home port for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, while Obama will probably nod quietly, as the Emir explains that trouble in Bahrain is too close to Qatar for comfort.

The conversation will race along – it always does and both leaders will want to get to the subject of Afghanistan, the latest conflict in which Qatari leader Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has emerged as sponsor or chaperone for the Islamist movement in the equation – in this case, the Taliban.

His tiny but hugely wealthy government is carving a role for itself as a regional heavyweight, nurturing the Muslim Brotherhood and its associated movements from Tunnis to Cairo to Damascus, and on to Kabul.

In doing the rounds of the region, the pair will be struck by all the common ground between them – things got a bit tetchy over arms for the Syrian rebels, but in the end Washington came good with weapons for them. Obama will know where the Emir is going in this talk, because the Taliban is not the only insurgent movement hosted in a swanky government villa in Doha. The Emir’s other honoured guests are the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas movement.

The implicit deal, which senior figures in Hamas have confirmed to me, is that for abandoning Damascus, which was Hamas’s HQ for more than a decade, the Qatari Emir undertook to speak for Hamas in the capitals of the world – especially Washington.

The US is now ready to talk to the Taliban, after months of diplomatic spadework by Qatar. And the Emir would be entitled to ask Obama: what would it take for Washington to talk to Hamas? Did someone say bring in the diplomatic jack-hammers?

Unlike the Taliban, which stole government in Afghanistan, Hamas was fairly elected as the governing party of the Palestinian occupied territories in 2006.

The Taliban is responsible for the deaths of more than 3300 US and allied troops, about 10,000 Afghan security personnel and thousands of Afghan civilians. By contrast, the US Congressional Research Service attributes the death of ”more than 400” Israelis and ”more than 25 US citizens” to attacks by Hamas in Israel.

Given that the impact of Taliban violence dwarfs that of Hamas, how does Obama go to peace talks on Afghanistan without preconditions? In the past, US officials have insisted the Taliban must reject Al-Qaeda, renounce violence and recognise the new Afghan constitution.

By this week all that had been watered down to maybe the Taliban could disown Al-Qaeda in the future; and it would be nice if the insurgents would embrace the rights of women and minorities in the constitution.

By contrast, Washington has been rigid in its demands that Hamas renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept all deals done by other Palestinian leaders with Israel and the rest of the world before it will engage with the Islamist movement.

Hamas spurned Al-Qaeda years ago, and while the Taliban is cosying up with Tehran, Hamas’s relationship with Iran has cooled because the Palestinian movement refuses to back Iran’s key regional ally, Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad.

Insisting on preconditions the other side cannot accept is a great ruse by which to be seen to be posturing about peace, while doing little or nothing to achieve it. Unless, that is, the Qatari Emir knows something Obama is not letting on about yet.

Hamas officials were quoted claiming US representatives had been present at a meeting between Hamas and European officials two weeks ago.

The State Department issued a denial of sorts, saying the claims ”are not true”. Indeed.