--- title: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release | TIME description: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release canonical: https://time.com/video/bDGQvnh8/ og:title: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release og:description: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release og:url: https://time.com/video/bDGQvnh8/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bDGQvnh8/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release twitter:description: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bDGQvnh8/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release [Watch (HLS stream): Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bDGQvnh8.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2014-06-02. Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release_ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:44 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Rice: Bergdahl's side of story matters](/video/TxfdvgKM/) ### Rice: Bergdahl's side of story matters [Bergdahl's Release Sparks Political Fallout](/video/BBwMzOBN/) ### Bergdahl's Release Sparks Political Fallout [Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's Parents Speak About His Return](/video/ijsCQhO4/) ### Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's Parents Speak About His Return --- ## Transcript For the tiny country of Qatar, this has been an extremely important development, but you might not realize it looking at the morning newspaper. This is the Gulf Times. The lead story is some rather, is some rather esoteric story about Qatar's heritage to go digital. And somewhere buried in the middle of the front page. And watch how they phrased it. Obama thanks Gatar for assistance as Taliban free American Soldiers. And that speaks volumes to how this country views what it did. Very few details have been given of their involvement. They will only say that the talks were mandated by the Emir himself. The, they were long negotiations. But they were part of the country's basic humanitarian principles of foreign policy. And, when I asked a question of the Foreign Minister earlier today, he really wouldn't give any more, other than a general architecture of what they'd done. As I said before, I'm not prepared to go to any details, but in any case, when Qatar takes a mediation and bases that on the basic principle of [ INAUDIBLE ] and that is humanitarian [ INAUDIBLE ]. And because Qatar confidence of all parts it makes it easier for us to deal. Now of course the real question that everybody is asking how can Qatar give the assurance and keep to it that the five detainees will not only be kept here in Qatar under which circumstances we don't know. But also will be so monitored that they can't return to a life of terrorism. They've given the US that assurance. Susan Rice says it's been accepted. But so far, the Qataris have not given any indication, how they intend to keep in. For Qatar, this has been an important moment in the foreign policy of the new Emir's regime. Keeping friendly with the United States, making sure the Taliban stays in its place, and overall, putting the country on the map. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release","description":"Qatar's Mysterious Role in Bergdahl's Release","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bDGQvnh8/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-02T14:12:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bDGQvnh8.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/bDGQvnh8/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/bDGQvnh8/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```