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Qatar’s pull with powers and pariahs

A truce between Israel and Hamas is only days old – marked by a limited release of hostages and prisoners as well as a silencing of war in Gaza and a delivery of aid to its people – yet this precious period of peace has also brought something else: Top leaders of Hamas, Israel, and the United States have all thanked the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar for brokering the Jan. 15 agreement.

Despite many outside efforts to shake Qatar’s role as neutral arbiter, it “was ready to deal with all these pressures,” one Hamas official, Basem Naim, told Doha News.

These public expressions of gratitude reflect Qatar’s own mediating style: focus less on finding the specific problems between adversaries and more on nurturing qualities such as empathy to build respect and a mutual recognition of a vision of harmony.

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