Taliban and Afghan officials hold 'reconciliation' talks in Qatar

Both sides in ongoing conflict seek to downplay any expectations of official negotiations or peace coming from Doha talks

The Guardian, Associated Press in Doha, Saturday 2 May 2015

An Afghan soldier guards a roadside in Kabul. The army has increased security
 after at least 33 deaths recently from Taliban attacks on military posts in the
north-east. Photograph: Hedayatullah Amid/EPA

Afghan and Taliban officials will hold two days of “reconciliation” talks in Qatar, the Gulf country’s state news agency has reported, although both sides have sought to downplay expectations from the meeting.

QNA did not identify the officials taking part in the talks, which it said began on Saturday, citing the foreign ministry official Yousif al-Sada.

“The dialogue will be through open discussions about the Afghan reconciliation between all parties in Afghanistan,” the agency said.

In a statement, the Taliban earlier identified eight people who would take part in the talks. However, they said the discussions “should not be misconstrued as peace or negotiation talks”.

“It is worth mentioning that all participants of this conference attend in an individual capacity, no one participates as representatives for any government or party,” the statement said. “Since this is a research conference, therefore, every participant gives their opinion on a range of issues.”

The Afghan presidential spokesman, Ajmal Abidy, said members of the country’s High Peace Council would attend the talks in Doha in their “personal capacity only”.

“They will meet face to face,” Abidy told the Associated Press. “Nothing is going on. We have no expectations.”

Previous efforts to launch peace talks have failed. In 2013, the Taliban opened an office in Qatar for the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, hoisting the same white flag flown during the Taliban’s five-year rule of Afghanistan that ended with the 2001 US-led invasion. The raising of the flag sparked immediate outrage from the then president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and the US, derailing talks and eventually leading the Taliban to shutter the office.

While the office never officially opened, Qatar has become a place to open back-channel communication with the Taliban. Qatari intermediaries helped US officials negotiate the release of the captive US army’s Sgt Bowe Bergdahl last year, American officials have said.

The current Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, who was elected last year, has pushed for peace talks with the Taliban.

Reconstruction funds pledged for Gaza

Pledges for the reconstruction of Gaza have been made at an international meeting in Cairo. There were also renewed calls for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Deutsche Welle, 12 Oct 2014

Thirty international envoys gathered in Cairo on Sunday to discuss reconstruction of the Gaza strip. Some 18,000 homes in Gaza together with major parts of the territory's infrastructure were destroyed in the seven-week conflict with Israel this summer. The Palestinians have put the full cost of reconstruction at about $4 billion (3.16 billion euros) over three years.

"The state of Qatar announces its participation with an amount of $1 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza," Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya said at the meeting.

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced $212 million in US aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. "The people of Gaza do need our help, desperately, not tomorrow, not next week, they need it now," Kerry told the meeting.

European Union member states will contribute a total of 450 million euros ($568 million) to Gaza, the bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Germany is to contribute 50 million euros to reconstruction efforts in Gaza: "We can't allow the people in Gaza to sink into despair," he said in a statement.

Britain is to provide $32 million for reconstruction according to the country's ambassador in Cairo.

Palestinians put the cost of reconstruction
at about $4 billion

Israel was not invited to the conference but Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said any effort would need his government's consent: "Gaza cannot be rebuilt without the cooperation and participation of Israel," Lieberman told the Ynet news service. He added that Israel would be "receptive" to plans for "the reconstruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza."

Renewed peace calls

At the conference on Sunday there were also renewed calls for a peace process between the Palestinians and Israel.

"Out of this conference must come not just money but a renewed commitment from everybody to work for peace that meets the aspirations of all, for Israelis, for Palestinians for all people of this region," Kerry said. "And I promise you the full commitment of president Obama, myself and the United States to try to do that."

Egypt renewed its call for a wider Middle East peace deal based on a 2002 initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia, offering full recognition of the Jewish state, if it gave up all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and agreed to a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas also said the 2002 Arab plan could be the framework for a new comprehensive approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Israel has previously rejected this initiative.

jm/rc (Reuters, AFP)

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) greets Palestinian Authority President

 Mahmud Abbas (C) at Andalus Villa in Cairo on October 12, 2014, on the

sidelines of the Gaza Donor Conference (AFP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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Emir assures Merkel: Qatar has never supported 'IS' militants

At a meeting in Germany, Qatar's emir has told Chancellor Angela Merkel his country does not provide financial support to Islamist militants. The leaders also discussed the Gulf state's human rights record.

Deutsche Welle, 17 Sep 2014

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani made the assurances on Wednesday during meetings with Chancellor Merkel and President Joachim Gauck in Berlin.

"What is happening in Iraq and Syria is extremism and such organizations are partly financed from abroad," the emir said at a news conference in the German capital.

"But Qatar has never supported and will never support terrorist organizations," he said.

Qatar has previously been accused of providing financial backing to extremist groups, including al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. Qatar has also come under pressure from its neighbors in the region for supporting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Palestinian Hamas, and Islamist groups in Libya.

Following Wednesday's meeting, Merkel told reporters the emir had reassured her "the fight against IS is as much the task of Qatar as it is of other countries." She added that she had "no reason" not to believe what the emir said. "There is a broad commonality that we can not accept this kind of intolerance and brutality."

The chancellor also pointed out that Qatar had also pledged its support to the US-launched alliance formed to combat IS fighters.

The terror group has made significant territorial gains in parts of Iraq and Syria in recent months, prompting US President Barack Obama to launch a new strategy - including airstrikes - to "degrade and destroy" the militants.

Human rights concerns

In her meeting with the emir, Merkel said she had also raised concerns about human rights and conditions for foreign workers in Qatar.

The country is preparing to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, but has faced criticism after reports dozens of workers from India and Nepal had died on stadium construction sites. Some labor rights groups have argued for Qatar to be stripped of its hosting responsibilities.

"We do not say: We are the ideal state, which does not make mistakes," the emir said, and added that the government was working to address the problem.

Economic ties

Economic cooperation and investment were also on the agenda at the talks, with Merkel saying the resource-rich country was an important partner for the European Union, and that Germany had a lot to offer in the way of environmental technology and infrastructure.

"We are pleased about every Qatari investment," the chancellor said, praising the Gulf state's decision to buy shares in German companies, including Volkswagen, construction giant Hochtief, Siemens and Deutsche Bank.

At 34, the emir is the youngest head of state in the Arab world. He took over the position from his father, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who increased Qatar's economic output sevenfold during his reign from 1995 to 2013.

nm/glb (Reuters, dpa, AFP)

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Qatar-Gulf deal forces expulsion of Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Qatar-Gulf deal forces expulsion of Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Move comes under heavy pressure from Saudi Arabia, UAE and other neighbours, with threat posed by Isis used as lever

theguardian.com, Ian Black, Middle East editor, Tuesday 16 September 2014

The Qatari capital, Doha, is is seen by the Egyptian government and its conservative
Gulf backers as a centre of subversive Islamist activity. Photograph: Rex Features

Qatar has pledged to expel exiled leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood as one of the conditions of an agreement forced on the wealthy Gulf state by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other neighbours.

In a move that reflects shifting political alignments in a deeply divided Middle East, seven senior Brotherhood figures were ordered at the weekend to leave Doha, which is seen by the Egyptian government and its conservative Gulf backers as a centre of subversive Islamist activity. They include its acting leader, Mahmoud Hussein, and two other senior colleagues.

Qatar also agreed to stop attacking Egypt in al-Jazeera broadcasts. The TV network is based in Doha and is seen across the region as a reflecting the emirate's policies and preferences.

The conditions were part of an agreement signed in Riyadh in November 2013 and designed to patch up an angry quarrel in which Qatar was blamed for backing the Brotherhood in Egypt and Islamist groups from the neighbouring UAE to Libya. It has never been made public, and until recently had not been implemented.

Fears about the threat from Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria helped to convince Qatar to back down, diplomats said.

Turkish media reported that the country's president, Recep Tayep Erdoğan, had extended a welcome to the exiled leaders. Amr Darrag, the Brotherhoods's foreign relations officer, has already arrived in Turkey, according to al-Jazeera Turk. Gamal Abdul Sattar, the former deputy head of Egypt's religious affairs directorate, was planning to move to Istanbul, it said.

For the last four years Qatar and Turkey have been the chief backers of the Islamist movements that flourished during the Arab spring uprisings only to experience crushing defeat in Egypt when the Brotherhood's democratically-elected president Mohammed Morsi was overthrown by the army. Morsi's fall was openly supported by the other Gulf states and implicitly backed by the west. Under his successor, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, hundreds of Brotherhood supporters have been killed or imprisoned and the group has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation.

The departure of the Egyptian Brotherhood leaders from Doha was announced at the weekend and described as intended to spare Qatar embarrassment.

Details of the Riyadh deal, revealed by Gulf sources, underline the heavy pressure brought to bear. In March, in one of the worst spats the region has seen in recent years, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain all withdrew their ambassadors from Doha. Kuwait and Oman, the other two members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), are less hawkish. Riyadh tried to impose new conditions, including the closure of US thinktanks based in Doha. "The Saudis wanted to go beyond the original agreement and dictate to the Qataris, and the Qataris said no," said a well-placed Arab source.

Palestinian sources denied reports on Tuesday that the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, had also been asked to leave Doha. Qatar has played an important role backing the group, which is linked to but distinct from the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel has attacked Qatar in recent weeks for its support for Hamas. Doha has also been under fire for alleged links with Isis, which it has flatly denied. Like Saudi Arabia, it backed Islamist groups in Syria, some of which morphed over time into Isis.

Pressure on Qatar to implement the Riyadh agreement peaked in late August, when the Saudi foreign minister, interior minister and intelligence chief visited Doha. On 6 September, Qatar was given one further week to begin implementation.

"The Qataris have been forced into a situation where they have had to step back," said Michael Stephens of the Doha office of the Royal United Services Institution. "They tried as best they could to maintain their foreign policy without interference from other parties, but they were always going to have to make some kind of compromise. I am only suprised it has taken so long.

"This is a big deal in terms of understanding the balance of power in the Gulf. There's definitely a sense that they have to give some ground, that they can't just be this maverick state with its fingers in so many pies in the region."

Qatar has signalled that it will continue to support the Brotherhood more discreetly, while backing Gulf-wide efforts to fight Isis.

Emir assures Merkel: Qatar has never supported 'IS' militants

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Islamic State Fears Make Gulf Monarchies Set Aside Differences

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 01, 2014

A man uses a video camera to film destroyed buildings in the in the northern
 city of Aleppo on Aug. 29, 2014, following a reported barrel bomb attack in the
area by Syrian government forces. (AFP Photo/AMC/Zein Rifai)

Dubai. Advances by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and US calls for a coalition against them have made Gulf monarchies set aside disputes over Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, analysts say.

Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support.

“The biggest danger [in the Gulf] comes now from these [emerging] terrorist groups, and not from the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Research Center think tank.

Qatar’s relations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sank to a new low in March when the three governments withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, accusing it of meddling in their affairs and supporting the Brotherhood — designated as “terrorist” by Riyadh.

For Sager, the UAE was “the strictest” against Qatar among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

UAE State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter on Sunday that his country’s interest lies “in a strong Arab Gulf … sheltered from regional differences.”

Speaking to reporters following a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers, Kuwait’s top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said that the six-months spat with Qatar was on its way to being resolved.

He said the ambassadors could return to their posts “at any time”, without giving a specific date.

The announcement came as Saudi King Abdullah underscored the threat posed by jihadists unless there is “rapid” action.

“Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East,” Abdullah was quoted as telling ambassadors, including the US envoy, on Friday.

“If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month,” he warned.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict version of Islamic Shariah law. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States were from the kingdom.

Saudi authorities have long feared blowback from jihadist groups, particularly after a spate of Al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom from 2003 to 2006.

IS beliefs supported in Gulf

Kuwaiti political analyst Ayed al-Manaa agrees that “we now have a fear which is much bigger than the differences in foreign policies, with IS taking over one third of Syria and Iraq”.

“IS as an ideology is not only present in [Iraq and Syria]. It is present in our countries and is waiting for the opportunity to appear,” said Manaa.

“The political disputes [with Qatar] are no longer a priority … We live in danger from northeast Syria and northwest Iraq. This is an alarm bell for GCC nations to end their differences.”

GCC states on Saturday said they are ready to act “against terrorist threats that face the region and the world”.

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — the six GCC states — also pledged a readiness to fight “terrorist ideology which is contrary to Islam”.

However, “we are waiting for more details to understand what is needed” for the coalition proposed by US President Barack Obama, said Sabah.

Obama said he was developing a broad plan that would involve military, diplomatic and regional efforts to defeat the IS jihadists who have sown terror through crucifixions and gruesome beheadings.

Obama said he would dispatch US Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East to discuss the plan with regional allies, including the Gulf Arab states.

Regional expert Frederic Wehrey said that “the GCC does not have the capacity for real expeditionary military operations outside the Gulf.

“The question is what military value would they bring beyond the symbolic legitimacy of Arab participation,” said Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Sagar agrees, pointing out that the participation of GCC leader Saudi Arabia, would be limited to “intelligence” and the kingdom’s “ability in influencing public opinion in the Muslim world.”

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has already branded Al-Qaeda and IS jihadists as “enemy number one” of Islam and warned young Muslims to steer clear of “calls for jihad” issued on “perverted” grounds.

Agence France-Presse

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UN chief urges Israel to 'do far more' to spare Gaza civilians

Yahoo – AFP, 20 July 2014

A Israeli soliders is seen on a Merkava tank, as part of the Israeli army deployment
near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip on July 20, 2014 (AFP Photo/Menahem
Kahana)

Doha (AFP) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Israel to "exercise maximum restraint" and spare the lives of civilians in its campaign in Gaza, where Sunday's Palestinian death toll passed 100.

He also condemned the "atrocious action" of Israel in Shejaiya, near Gaza city, where a blistering hour-long assault at dawn left 62 people dead and at least 250 people wounded.

"While I was en route to Doha, dozens more civilians, including children had been killed in Israeli military strikes in Shejaiya. I condemn this atrocious action," he told a press conference in Doha, his first stop on a regional trip aimed at bringing an end to the fighting.

"Israel must exercise maximum restraint and do far more to protect civilians," he said, adding that it also "must respect the humanitarian law," as it pressed on with its major military campaign that began on July 8.

"Too many innocent people are dying...(and) living in constant fear" in the narrow coastal strip controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement, he said.

At least 438 have been killed in Israel's campaign on Gaza, more than a third of them women and children, according to medics.

The Israeli army said 13 soldiers had been killed in a series of attacks inside Gaza on the third day of a major ground operation.

Ban is also travelling to Kuwait City, Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman.

He is to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah ah-Sisi in Cairo on Monday to discuss proposals to arrange a truce in the Gaza conflict.

Egypt's foreign ministry said their talks would "focus on the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire".

Cairo had proposed a halt to the fighting but Hamas rejected this, saying it had not been consulted, and Israel initially accept it.

Hamas has laid out a set of conditions, including the lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade on Gaza, the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the release of scores of prisoners Israel rearrested in recent weeks.

Hamas also wants its Turkish and Qatari allies to be involved in any truce negotiations.

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Beware ISIL, Iran's Rouhani warns 'petrodollar' states

Yahoo – AFP, 22 June 2014

A handout picture released by the official website of the Iranian president 

show President Hassan Rouhani speaking in Khoramabad on June 18,

 2014 (AFP Photo)

Tehran (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani warned on Sunday that Muslim states which funnel petrodollars to jihadist Sunni fighters wreaking havoc in Iraq will become their next target.

Rouhani did not name any country, but officials and media in mainly Shiite Iran have hinted that insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are being financially and militarily supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

"I advise Muslim countries that support the terrorists with their petrodollars to stop," Rouhani said in remarks reported by the website of Iran's state broadcaster.

"Tomorrow you will be targeted... by these savage terrorists. Wash your hands of killing and the killing of Muslims," he added. ISIL militants have seized a swathe of Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive, with the Baghdad government's security forces hard-pressed to prevent the advance.

Riyadh has warned that Iran-ally Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is steering Iraq towards civil war through policies that exclude the country's Sunni minority.

Iran, the predominant Shiite powerhouse in the Middle East, says it will support Maliki against ISIL, which is also battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another Tehran ally.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he was against any foreign intervention in Iraq, accusing the United States of seeking to "take advantage of fanatics with no will of their own," referring to ISIL.

Khamenei reiterated Iranian declarations that the Maliki government "has the ability to stop this plot, with collective efforts that include the people.

"This is not a Shiite versus Sunni war, unlike what American officials say," he said in comments published on his website, blaming -- without giving further details -- the US for "disrupting (Iraq's) stability and threatening its territorial integrity."

Rouhani meanwhile called for unity between "Shiites and Sunnis who are brothers".

"For centuries, Shiites and Sunnis have lived alongside each other in Iran, Iraq, the Levant, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf and North Africa... in peaceful coexistence," he said.

Since ISIL began its Iraq offensive, Tehran has urged Iraqis to unite against the jihadists.

"The Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are our friends," parliament speaker Ali Larijani said in remarks reported on the Majlis website.

"We have always insisted that all ethnic groups must have active and constructive participation in Iraq's power structure."

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