Republicans Debut Bill Challenging Qatar’s U.S. Alliance over Ties to Hamas

Three Republican senators introduced a bill on Tuesday challenging the elite status of Qatar as a “major non-NATO ally” of the United States, citing the Islamist state’s close relationship with Hamas and its failure to use those ties to help free hostages taken in the unprecedented October 7 siege of Israel.

Qatar has for decades established itself as a mediating power between global jihadists and the free world, prominently hosting Hamas’s elite “political” leaders in its capital, Doha. Qatar also served as the “political” hub of the Taliban during the 20-year Afghan war, making itself a platform for dialogue between Taliban terrorists and the U.S.-backed Afghan government. Doha has offered safe haven to high-profile jihadists while also allowing the U.S. military to maintain a presence in the country that allows it to plan and orchestrate actions against terrorists in neighboring countries such as Iraq and Syria.

Qatar’s support of Hamas has become a significant point of contention in its relationship with America in the aftermath of October 7. On that day, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and engaged in a wide variety of atrocities against civilians, including torture, gang rape, infanticide, the desecration of corpses, and filming many of its terrorist acts, uploading them to the internet. An estimated 1,200 people were killed that day and another 250 were taken hostage. Qatar has mediated talks between Hamas and Israel and the United States since the attacks.

“For more than six months, Hamas has held five U.S. citizens hostage in Gaza, as well as the bodies of three citizens believed to have been killed on or shortly after October 7th,” Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), who introduced the legislation alongside Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Joni Ernst (R-IA), said in a statement on Tuesday. “Qatar has shifted from claiming it is exercising all leverage on Hamas to publicly stating that it has n