The U.S.’ indictment of top Hamas official Khaled Meshaal earlier this week is raising new questions about how and whether the administration will pursue Meshaal’s arrest, an issue with serious implications for the U.S.-Qatar relationship. Meshaal lives in Qatar, which is a U.S. ally, but does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Multiple Republican lawmakers who’ve been critical of Qatar said they support efforts to ensure that Qatar turns Mershaal over for trial in the United States. Some also said the indictments were long overdue.

“Although the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Qatar, we would expect a major non-NATO ally to comply with any request to extradite a terrorist leader responsible for the murder and kidnapping of U.S. citizens,” Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), a lead sponsor of legislation seeking to reevaluate the U.S.’ relationship with Qatar, told JI.

The Department of Justice, State Department and White House all declined to comment on the prospect of seeking Meshaal’s extradition.

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) said in a statement to JI that the U.S. should “utilize every resource at its disposal to bring Hamas leaders to justice including a ramped up pressure campaign to demand the Qatari government cooperate with federal authorities and quit harboring terrorists like Khaled Meshaal.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called for “pressure on the Qatari government to facilitate the extradition of Khaled Meshaal so he can face trial in the US,” adding, “We should not allow our security partners to harbor Hamas leaders and help them escape justice.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), who may be in contention for a Cabinet position in a potential second Trump administration, told JI that Qatar needs to “do more to crack down on Hamas operations that occur there.”

He added, however, that he’s “concerned this indictment is a token fig leaf to cover up the Biden administration’s one-sided pressure on Israel to make a deal, even after the brutal murder of six hostages including an American. Real pressure needs to be put on Hamas and their Iranian backers.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who is running to become the top Senate Republican next year, said on X that the charges “should have been brought days after the attacks, not almost a year later.”

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), the Democratic co-chair of the House hostage task force, praised the indictments as “another critical step to secure a measure of justice for the victims, their families, and free people living in a secular democracy around the world.”

While she didn’t specifically address the issue of extradition, Stevens told JI, “I support any additional efforts by the Biden-Harris Administration and NGOs to hold the brutal and unjustified actors of Hamas to account.”

Matthew Levitt, the Fromer-Wexler senior fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that there’s “no inherent mechanism to [extradite Meshaal] in a straightforward way” without an extradition treaty.

The U.S. could still request that Qatar extradite Meshaal, but the request could be denied for a range of reasons, “including the fact that it’s politically uncomfortable,” Levitt continued.

He said the U.S. may decide not to press the issue, given that it could be “complicated for Qatar,” but the indictment could still provide the U.S. with greater leverage to press Qatar to stop harboring Hamas leaders. He said the U.S. could also request an Interpol “red notice” — an international arrest request — for Meshaal and other indicted Hamas leaders, making it more difficult for them to travel internationally.

Ultimately, Levitt said, it’s unlikely that Meshaal or the other indicted Hamas leaders — who are currently inside Gaza and Lebanon — will be prosecuted and imprisoned in the U.S.

He said he believes that most in the U.S. expect Washington to pursue further accountability measures for Hamas’ killing of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other hostages, beyond these indictments.

Orde Kittrie, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who urged the U.S. to prosecute Hamas leaders in November, listed several reasons he believes the indictment falls short, noting that it charges three dead Hamas officials, that the other charged Hamas leaders may be inaccessible and that the indictment fails to charge several other Hamas officials known to reside in Qatar and Turkey.

“There are ample grounds for U.S. law enforcement officers to conclude that the actions of the principal Hamas leaders, including those in Qatar and Turkey, meet the standard for conviction” for hostage-taking and support for terrorism, Kittrie told JI.

He said the U.S. should demand that Qatar detain Meshaal and facilitate his prosecution, as well as turn over Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, who also lives in Qatar and was indicted in the U.S. years ago.

Kittrie argued that more aggressive criminal prosecutions and other legal options including secondary sanctions and action against Qatar and Turkey as sanctuaries for terrorism would be an effective, and non-military, method to ensure that Hamas is held accountable for its attack on Israel even as the international community criticizes Israel’s military operations.

“The Biden administration and Congress have yet to deploy their own powerful yet bloodless tools for holding Hamas accountable and ending its rule over Gaza: heavy pressure on Qatar, Turkey, and any other country hosting top Hamas leaders,” Kittrie said. “Whereas the United States has little to no direct leverage over Hamas, Washington has very strong and direct leverage over Qatar and Turkey, which have long housed most of Hamas’s top leaders. This leverage could help bring the terrorist organization to its knees with minimal bloodshed.”

Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch contributed reporting.