Hundreds of worshipers gathered on Friday, August 2, in a large mosque in Doha, Qatar, to pray in memory of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, assassinated Wednesday in Tehran. Qatar hosts the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamist party. With the death of its leader, Qatar’s role as mediator is also being called into question.
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Ismail Haniyehassassinated on Wednesday July 31 in Tehran, is buried in a cemetery in Lusail, a city north of Dohaafter prayers in the Imam Mohammad bin Abdul Wahab mosque, the largest in the Qatari capital. Hundreds of people gathered on Friday in front of the coffin of the deceased, covered with a Palestinian flag, and that of his bodyguard, also killed on Wednesday.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was among those present, as were Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and many Hamas officials, including Khaled Meshaal, 68, who is tipped to succeed Ismail Haniyeh. Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, called on worshipers to pray for Ismail Haniyeh’s soul in mosques around the world. May this Friday be a day of immense anger denouncing this assassination and rejecting the genocide in the Gaza Strip. ” he said in a statement.
Hamas member Sami Abu Zouhri, who attended the funeral, told Reuters by telephone that the message to ” the occupant “(Israel) was without appeal.” You are sinking deep into the mud and your end is closer than ever “, he added. ” Haniyeh’s Blood Changes All Equations ” he stressed.
He [Ismaïl Haniyeh, Ndlr] was negotiating with them to get an agreement and to stop this war… and to reach a ceasefire. And now we’re going to ask the Palestinians to live side by side in a two-state solution with the Israelis? The person who was talking to them, they murdered him…
In Ramallah, despite the mourning, the sadness, the anger… there is fear of reprisals
Qatar a little more weakened in its role as mediator
Ismail Haniyeh, who lived in exile in Qatar, played a key role in indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement for a truce in the war in Gaza. Qatar, the main negotiating country, has questioned the viability of this mediation after his assassination, which sparked calls for revenge. How can mediation succeed when one side murders the other side’s negotiator? “, the Qatari Prime Minister published on X a few hours after the announcement of the death of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
Qatar has been the home of Hamas’ foreign policy leadership since it was forced to leave Syria in 2012. Since the 2000s, Doha has been the mediator designated by the United States, in agreement with Israel, to allow indirect exchanges with the movement that Washington considers terrorist. But for several months, this intermediary position has become very difficult to maintain.
Israeli leaders and some American officials now accuse him of being close to Hamas. Last April, the Qatari Prime Minister even threatened to withdraw from the negotiations. Some analysts also see the attack on Ismail Haniyeh as an Israeli attack on the Qatari role in the discussions. The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken has publicly reaffirmed the importance of Qatar in building a “ sustainable regional peace “.
If Hamas’s political bureau were forced to leave Qatar, it could find refuge in a country like Iran, which is much less inclined to play mediator.
Read alsoDeath of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran: the international community fears the “conflagration of the entire region”