Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi was categorical: His government had no knowledge of why the Qatari officials who arrived in Baghdad to receive Qatari hostages released by a Shia militia group had been carrying millions of dollars on their private jet. “We were surprised that there were such big bags, so we seized them and they contained hundreds of millions of dollars,” Al-Abadi told a news conference following a controversy about ransom money reportedly paid to secure the release of the hostages. In December 2015, a group of Qataris – including prominent members of the royal family – and individuals of other nationalities were kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq after crossing the border for a hunting trip. “This money was brought in without the approval of the Iraqi government,” said Al- Abadi, who questioned where the money was heading. “Hundreds of millions going to armed groups? Is this acceptable,” he asked. Al-Abadi also disclosed that he had not authorised the visas issued to the group, who included two Saudis and a Pakistani helper, by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Armed men seized the Qatari hunters from a desert camp in Iraq's southern Muthanna Province on the border with Saudi Arabia. At least nine members of the group managed to escape and crossed into neighbouring Kuwait. No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions, but it was widely reported that the kidnappers belonged to the powerful Iranian-backed Ketaeb Hizbullah group that is believed to maintain close relations with the Lebanese Hizbullah. The hostages were freed on 21 April without any explanation from the Iraqi authorities or a word about which group had been responsible for their adduction or the terms of their release. The Arab media reported that negotiations for the release of the Qataris had been going on two tracks, one official with the Iraqi authorities and a second one with the kidnappers. The Saudi-owned Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on 18 April that Qatar had paid $700 million to the kidnappers, with half of that money delivered to an unnamed group in Beirut in Lebanon. The paper said that at least one Iraqi intelligence official had been sacked after a row in the government that he had been trying to skim off some of the money paid by Qatar. Qatar denied it was trying to pay ransom money to secure the release of the group abducted in Iraq and asked Baghdad to return the money it had confiscated to Doha. Qatar's Foreign Minister, Mohamed bin Abdel-Rahman Al-Thani, told the Doha-based AlJazeera TV channel that Baghdad had been consulted about the money he said had been sent “to support the authorities in the release of the Qatari abductees”. “Qatar has provided funds to Iraq in an official, clear and public manner,” he said. “Qatar did not deal with armed groups outside the authority of the [Iraqi] state.” The Qatari-owned Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed newspaper quoted officials in the Gulf emirate as saying that the deal to secure the release of the Qataris kidnapped in southern Iraq went ahead with the “full knowledge” of Baghdad. Qatar regularly consulted with Iraqi officials during the negotiations with the kidnappers, while Iraqi officials were regularly briefed by Qatari officials, the paper said. However, the kidnapping of the Qataris and their release has highlighted a strange saga, involving mystery, intrigue, secrecy and espionage. Moreover, it has underscored Qatar's financial leverage, which uses billions of dollars to promote dubious diplomacy. The hostage episode started with the surprise arrival of the group of Qatari royals and their helpers in the Shia-dominated part of Iraq .Like most Iraqi Shias, the population in this region consider Qatar to be hostile to their government and accuse it of supporting Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Royals from the rich Gulf nations used to frequent Iraq's southern desert to hunt rare birds, but the treks had come to a halt since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 when the Gulf governments severed their ties with Baghdad. A key question, therefore, is why Qatar agreed to allow its royals and citizens to travel to Iraq, knowing that the country is mired by violence in which Shia militias hostile to Qatar wield enormous power. Al-Abadi's announcement that he had not sanctioned entry visas for the Qataris is also indicative. Foreigners usually apply for visas at Iraqi embassies abroad before applications are sent to the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad for processing. Could the Interior Ministry, headed by a minister who belongs to an Iran-backed militia, have been involved in the kidnapping, and did the Foreign Ministry and the Iraqi embassy in Doha fail to properly assess the situation? The answers to these questions could cast some light on this mysterious episode and explain whether it was part of the ongoing Middle East proxy wars. As negotiations for the release of the hostages continued, another drama was unfolding in neighbouring Syria, where Iran and its Shia allies in Iraq and Lebanon are entangled in a conflict in which Qatar stands on the opposite side. On 22 April, one day after the release of the Qataris, thousands of displaced Syrians were evacuated from besieged towns in the first phase of a population-transfer scheme between areas under the control of the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and those of his opponents. An agreement for the evacuation of residents from four besieged Syrian towns and an exchange of detainees by the two sides was part of a broad regional deal between Iran and Qatar. Qatar has long been thought to have influence with some rebel groups in Syria, including the former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as the Fateh Al-Sham Front, a group which has besieged government-controlled villages. Iran is a key supporter of Al-Assad, and Iraqi Shia militias are fighting alongside his forces and together with the Lebanese Hizbullah group control swathes of Syrian territory. During the last phase of the negotiations to free the Qataris, buses carrying Shia evacuees from the towns of Fua and Kefraya were attacked on 15 April by a suicide bomber in a vehicle. Though the explosion killed some 126 people and wounded a further 300, the incident did not halt the complex negotiations between Qatar and the kidnappers. The release of the hostages was a happy ending for Qatar, and it could be a boost for the energy-rich Gulf emirate which has used its influence and money to free other hostages in war zones. Qatar arranged the prisoner swap that saw US soldier Bowe Bergdahl freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held in the Guantánamo Bay prison in 2014. But the disclosure of the deal also sheds light on the opaque world of private hostage negotiations in the Middle East in a case that now involves Hizbullah, Iran, Iraq and Qatar and millions of dollars in ransom payments. Qatar views the Shia militias as proxies for Iran, while Baghdad and Tehran accuse Doha of funding terrorist networks in the Iraqi and Syrian conflicts. Qatar also hosts US military bases that are used by the International Coalition to fight Islamic State (IS) militants in both countries. But Washington has reportedly been dismayed by Doha's funding of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood which is trying to destabilise some of its regional allies. Qatar also stands accused of playing a disruptive role in nearly every trouble spot in the Middle East and in accelerating the rise of radical and jihadist groups. For Qatar, the deal with the Iraqi Shia militias is seen as part of its ambitious project to become a key Middle Eastern player with growing political, intelligence, media and financial influence in the region. But Qatar's involvement in Syria and subsequently in making the Iraq hostage deal is also about economic self-interest and in particular energy geopolitics. The gas-powerhouse emirate is entangled in a pipeline war in Syria with other competitors, mainly gas-rich Iran and Russia. A planned Iranian gas pipeline via Iraq to the Mediterranean coast of Syria would deprive Qatar of a major route to European markets, and this is one main reason why Doha is working to maintain a front-seat role in regional politics. As for Iraq, what is at stake is the credibility of Al-Abadi's government, which has been embarrassed by the disclosure of the arrival at Baghdad Airport of such a huge amount of money destined for a militia which has been taking hostages. Al-Abadi will now have to try to explain to Iraqis how under his dysfunctional government their country has turned into a jungle not only of sectarian militia politics and reprisals, but also of kidnapping of foreigners entering Iraq with valid visas for ransom payments. And when hundreds of millions of dollars arrive in bags at Baghdad Airport, he will also need to answer to international monetary institutions about how his country has become a money-laundering haven.
