Qatar has established itself as a trustworthy mediator and peace maker in the region keen to help reduce tension and enhance stability in the Middle East, a senior French geopolitical scholar and researcher told Gulf Times.

Fabrice Balanche, associate professor and research director at the University of Lyon 2 and adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute, explained in an interview on Monday that he has been monitoring and studying the geopolitical situation in the Middle and Near East for more than two decades.

"Qatar has emerged as a reliable soft power capable of offering conflicting parties a safe, neutral and comfortable meeting point to discuss their problems and sort out the related issues," he observed.

Qatar has been playing a major role besides other partners including the US and Egypt in helping reach a deal between the Israelis and Hamas to end the war on Gaza and the efforts are going on to reach a peaceful settlement.

The visiting scholar sees Qatar as a neutral power that can easily provide a meeting place for the representatives of conflicting to meet each other securely and safely, as it is not party to any of such conflicts, besides having the material means to supply the necessary logistics for such meetings.

Qatar has a enjoyed a considerable success in resolving a number of crises and was able to further promote sports diplomacy, where global sports events could be a good opportunity for decision makers to meet in a friendly environment, he said.

Balanche recently gave a lecture at Joaan Bin Jassim Academy for Defence Studies on the geopolitical conflicts across the Levant and the Near East and the involved issues. The expert on the Syrian issue has lived in Syria and talked to the Syrians in their own language without any interpreters to get firsthand knowledge on the ongoing troubles there.

He stressed that geopolitical researchers have to go the targeted places themselves and live among the people to get accurate and true image of the involved situation. Accordingly, decision makers can built their moves on real and true information rather than assumptions taken from experts who have never seen the situation first hand for many considerations including security risks.

Balanche, a frequent visitor to Qatar since 2008, has witnessed the massive development and sophistication that happened across all fields in the country.

"By European standards such massive development in this relatively short period is considered a miracle," he said, while describing Qatar as an excellent place for many European families.

"It is safe and secure all the time. Women enjoy exceptional respect and freedom and Qatari people respect others and very nice to foreigners, "he stressed.