BAGHDAD: Qatar secured the release of 26 hostages after nearly a year and a half in captivity in what became possibly the region’s most complex and sensitive hostage negotiation deal in recent years. Several people with knowledge of the talks and a person involved in the negotiations said the hostage deal was linked to one of the largest population transfers in Syria’s six-year-long civil war, and was delayed for several days due to an explosion one week ago that killed at least 130 people waiting to be transferred. The transfer of thousands of Syrian civilians was also tied to another deal involving 750 political prisoners to be released by the Syrian government.

The complexity of the talks highlights Qatar’s role as an experienced and shrewd facilitator in hostage negotiations this time involving members of the Gulf Arab state’s ruling family. It also raised allegations that Qatar paid millions of dollars to an Al-Qaeda-linked group to facilitate the population transfer in Syria that led to the hostages’ release in Iraq on Friday.

Qatar is home to Centcom’s regional headquarters and is where the US has its largest military base in the Middle East. It is also a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

The incident was sparked when the group was kidnapped on Dec 16, 2015 from a desert camp for falcon hunters in southern Iraq. They had legally entered Iraq to hunt inside Muthanna province. Shia militias are active in that area and work closely with Iran.

A person involved in the negotiations told AP that 11 of the captives were members of Qatar’s Al Thani ruling family. He also said Qatar paid tens of millions of dollars to Shia groups, and to the Al-Qaeda-linked Levant Liberation Committee and Ahrar al-Sham, which are involved in the population transfers underway in Syria. Both groups were part of an armed opposition alliance that swept through Syria’s Idlib province, seizing it from government control in 2015 and laying siege to two pro-government villages now being evacuated.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the negotiator said the Qatari group was held by Iraqi Shia militia Kata’eb Hezbollah. The group officially denies it was behind the kidnapping and no other group has publicly claimed responsibility for the abduction. He said Qatari officials were given assurances about the well-being of the hostages during negotiations. Two Iraqi officials, a government and a security official, also confirmed details of the release to the AP.

The abduction of the Qatari group drew Iran, Qatar and Hezbollah into negotiations, resulting in millions of dollars in payments to Sunni and Shia factions, according to Iraqi officials and a person involved in the negotiations. They say the talks took place in Beirut.

The negotiator said the ongoing evacuation and transfer of thousands of Syrians from four besieged areas was central to the release of the Qataris. The two pro-government villages, Foua and Kfarya, had been besieged by rebel fighters and under a steady barrage of rockets and mortars for years. The two opposition-held towns, Zabadani and Madaya, were under government siege for joining the 2011 uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the transfer included 800 armed men from both sides. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the group, told the AP that the population swap in Syria was directly tied to the issue of the kidnapped Qataris.

Abdurrahman, citing information from negotiators he’d spoken with, said the Qataris first proposed bringing the fate of the hunting group into the talks about the besieged four areas in Syria.

The population exchange has been criticised by rights groups, which say it rewards siege tactics and amounts to forcible displacement along sectarian lines.

Qatar’s state TV showed the arrival of the group from Iraq as ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani waited to receive them on the tarmac. Their release was a priority of Qatar’s foreign policy for more than a year, said David Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The AP reported last week that a Qatari ruling family member paid $2 million, in an effort involving hackers, to secure the release of the hostages.

Weinberg, who has testified before Congress about Qatar’s role in hostage negotiations, said alleged enormous payments paid to a group with ties to Al Qaeda creates incentive for future hostage taking. He said Qatar continues to “punch above its weight” in ways that concern some people in Washington.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2017