How did Qatar emerge as the world’s top peace broker? It began with a 1995 palace coup over LNG

The coup preceded Qatar’s spectacular shift to liquefied natural gas, powering its ascent to global heavyweight status on the diplomatic stage

Major triumphs include its brokering of a 2020 peace agreement between Washington and the Taliban and the recent ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war

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Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, whose father and predecessor as emir led the bloodless palace coup in 1995. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:30am, 10 Dec 2023Updated: 9:36am, 10 Dec 2023

With no end in sight to the Israel-Gaza war, a tiny Gulf nation has become the unlikely broker of peace following its success in mediating an earlier eight-day ceasefire and hostage exchange deal.

Qatar’s actions – notable for succeeding where the world’s superpowers could not – have put the country back in the spotlight a year after it staged a successful Fifa World Cup.

In 2020, Qatar also made global headlines when it hosted the signing of a peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban, ending their 20-year war in Afghanistan.

A view of high-rise buildings in the Qatari capital, Doha. Fewer than 400,000 Qataris inhabit the Gulf Arab nation of some 2.7 million. Photo: AFP

So how did Qatar, a country with a native population of under 400,000, pull off such impressive diplomatic triumphs?

It all began late one night in July 1995 with a bloodless palace coup in the Qatari capital, Doha.

At the time, this writer was working as the senior Gulf correspondent of US news agency United Press International (UPI) when the landline in his Dubai home office rang shortly after midnight.

In hushed, strained tones, UPI stringer Jamal Al-Rihawi said he had been authorised by a senior Qatari official to report that the crown prince had staged a coup against his father the emir, who was on holiday in Switzerland at the time.