There's something about Qatar...

Lebanese leaders will travel to Doha soon for Qatari-backed negotiations between the government and the opposition. The Arab delegation that arrived to Lebanon yesterday, headed by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, has dilligently been holding talks with members of the government and the Hizbullah-led opposition all through today.

My question is, how the fuck does little Qatar pull it off? And I don't mean in just being an acceptable mediator to both the government and the opposition in Lebanon, but in effectively playing both sides with the big boys? As Now Lebanon's David Kenner notes:

The oil-rich Gulf state is generally thought of as a close ally of the West: It is home to America’s most important military outpost in the Gulf region, a $1.5 billion airbase which played a major role in the latest Iraq war. Furthermore, Qatar maintains close relations with Saudi Arabia, its American-friendly neighbor.

Pushing the envelope even further, Qatar maintains low level trade agreements with Israel and permits an Israeli representation to operate in Doha. But, as Kenner further notes, Qatar has kept on good terms with both Iraq and Iran, and maintains defense links with Egypt and Syria.

Qatar is like a country that has the allegiances of a pre-2005 Walid Jumblatt and a post-2005 Walid Jumblatt, simultaneously, at once, in a harmony that makes sense to Qatar and the countries around it...if that makes sense at all.