Qatar is “so proud” to have facilitated the return home this week of five US citizens that had been jailed in Iran, said Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour – his first time speaking in depth about Qatar’s role in the episode.
“We were so proud to see that Qatar helped in bringing those people back to their families,” Al-Thani said.
Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, along with two Americans who have not been publicly named, arrived Tuesday at a military airfield in Virginia after being flown out of Iran the previous day on a Qatari government jet.
The release, which came as part of a wider deal that includes the US unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds, began to coalesce earlier this year amid negotiations in Doha, CNN has previously reported.
Asked by Amanpour if the deal could mark a rapprochement in US-Iranian relations, Al-Thani struck an optimistic note, saying, “I cannot claim that this will lead to a nuclear deal, but it’s going definitely to lead to a better environment.”
“What happened actually was a great building block for rebuilding the confidence between the two countries,” he said.
“I hope both countries are believing that this will lead to a better environment to go for an entire agreement on the nuclear issue, and any other outstanding issue,” he said.
The Qatar-mediated prisoner-release deal came amid a significant dialing back of tensions between Iran and the US in recent months.
On the negotiations that facilitated the return home of five Americans detained in Iran:
“I would like to congratulate the families of the prisoners to have them back and seeing them and I hope all of them are in good health. We always have a faith and believe that we can help, we can facilitate especially humanitarian situations. We’ve been through a lot of challenges throughout the negotiations. Honestly, none of the parties was easy in the negotiation. But we tried our best in order to create the trust between us and them in order to have this deal happening. It took us months until we reached this agreement. But we have seen the desire and determination of both parties to implement the agreement in good faith, and this is something we commend both parties for doing it.”
On his reaction to seeing the five Americans step off the plane as free men:
“We were so proud to see that Qatar helped in bringing those people back to their families, definitely. I mean, all of us on all levels, whether from His Highness the Emir, myself, the entire government and the people of Qatar, we are so proud that Qatar could make such a thing.”
On whether this deal could be the beginning of a rapprochement between Iran and the US:
“I cannot claim that this will lead to a nuclear deal, but it’s going definitely to lead to a better environment. We’ve been doing this mediating between countries, mediating in different issues, for decades now. In our experience, we know that in complex situations, you need to unlock it by rebuilding the confidence between the parties. And I believe what happened yesterday actually was a great building block for rebuilding the confidence between the two countries. I hope both countries are believing that this will lead to a better environment to go for an entire agreement on the nuclear issue, and any other outstanding issue. At the end of the day, what we want for our region: stability.”
On Israel and Palestine:
“We hear also about Israel, but from our perspective, as state of Qatar, we see that – we don’t have a war with Israel, as a region. The reason that we have the conflict with Israel is over the occupation of the Palestinian territories. And what we are asking for is the statehood for the Palestinians. And that’s what basically been mentioned in the Arab Peace Initiative that came out in 2001 and all Arab countries has adopted that. We believe to bring peace to the region, the starting point should be between the Israelis and the Palestinians. A normalization agreement happening between countries is their sovereign decision at the end of the day, no one has the right to question that, as no one has the right to question our sovereign foreign policy decisions. But we think that, from our perspective, the Israeli issue is only the issue of the Palestinians.”
On engagement with the US:
“We have seen more and more engagement with the US… We see their commitment to the defense of the Gulf region and the joint trainings are ongoing and we have a great military relationship with the US. We’ve been doing a lot of work together at Al Udeid Air Base, hosting more than 10,000 US men and women in uniforms.”
On the war in Ukraine and the ‘double standards’ when it comes to supporting the Global South:
“We are against this war from the beginning. Invading a country, occupying territory is something not acceptable for us, for the international community. It’s violating the international law and this is something that all of us, we need to be clear with. What’s happening right now, unfortunately, we always see talks about continuation of war, but not really how to seek peace and how to end this war. And this is something very frustrating for us and for a lot of countries which are considered or called today the Global South. Because they are suffering from the results of this war, whether it’s on the grain supply, whether it’s on the energy supply. And we have seen this, even throughout the debate here at the UN this year. We have seen a very strong momentum from the European countries, from the US to support Ukraine. This is something we totally understand it. We totally want to stand with any country that has been subject to attack. But also this is raising the bar and the expectation for other smaller countries which believe they are neglected in that. And they became more and more excited that these rules which was applied and advocated for Ukraine will be advocated for, for them, whether it’s in occupation of the Palestinian territories. The world cannot be held in double standards. I mean that’s what’s now the bottom line for most of the developing countries. And they want to see the same commitment to all them as well. And this is, I think this is the key, and the key now is how to find peace in that war and end it, and any occupation. But also to look at the other issues, whether the suffering of the Syrian people, the Palestinians and others like the Rohingyas in Myanmar – all over the world we see these conflicts.”
