Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: Iran's Justifications for Attacks on Qatar

Qatar Iran tensions

HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani have expressed deep condemnation of the Iranian attacks on the State of Qatar and other Gulf countries, describing Iran's justifications about its aggression against us as "entirely rejected".

His Excellency also recognized the discipline of Qatari armed forces and security services in ensuring the safety of Qatar, citizens, residents and visitors.

“Unfortunately, that was an extremely challenging situation for the whole country,” HE Sheikh Mohammed said. "But we have our defense and security personnel doing a good job in defending the country and its people. They have shown a professional way of facing all these threats coming from Iran.

“We never thought this would come from our neighbor. We are always on the business and building this good relationship in preserving the good neighborhood and relationship in a good faith with Iran. "So they don't have the justification or also pretext that they've been using in order to justify such attacks on the state of Qatar and other countries, which is totally rejected."

The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs called Iran’s actions “a betrayal,” noting that the strikes were planned in advance, targeting Qatar and other Gulf states even before war broke out. “And all of us before this war have been repeating: `We are not going to take part in neither attacks, nor wars against our neighbors. We want to see a neighborhood where we feel better and saferй. We were assisting Iran and the United States in finding diplomatic solutions,” he said. “But this Iranian mistake of attacking the Gulf countries has ruined all of it.”

The attacks were aimed at military facilities, but they also struck civilian infrastructure, energy installations, industrial complexes and even drinking water systems, HE Sheikh Mohammed said. He denounced the attacks as a “careless act” and affirmed that Qatar possesses restive faculties to defend the country, to protect civilians and ensure critical services continue working. “We have the ability and the personnel to ensure that the country is defended, that none of our people are impacted by these attacks,” he said.

His Excellency affirmed that Qatar will not tolerate any attacks on civil or energy infrastructure, whether in its own territory or elsewhere including Iran. “This was our position {in} regard to Russia and Ukraine, this was our position in regard to Gaza, this is what we are saying now will be applied everywhere,” he said.

He said that during the second day of the war one major Iranian attack hit a gas facility incoming with such high risk thereby forcing Qatar to declare force majeure and shut down.

Commenting on statements by the Iranian President promising attacks against neighboring states would cease, HE Sheikh Mohammed said: “Everyone was hopeful, including us, {but} even right after his statement we had an attack like 10 minutes later. And I was thinking that perhaps this would take some time just so everybody got the instruction to stop these attacks. "But we were really shocked when the attacks were massively against UAE, Bahrain in the afternoon, actually while we were working at that time with other GCC countries to come out with collectively expressing this is what we want to see".

He stressed that the regional countries do not want to be involved in the war and are looking for an immediate end of hostilities, as they always favour a diplomatic solution. “But as we were talking about this with our GCC colleagues, their countries have been attacked. That was our last hope before Bahrain got hit directly. We saw a huge attack on Bahrain at the same time and half an hour later, Doha itself was also hit,” he added.

It added that Qatar reserves the full right to defend itself, and will crush any such threats as this, a principle that is not subject to compromise. "We are not part of this war. We do not want to be involved in that war. We do not wish to become embroiled in that.” But the principle to defend our country will never change. We will take every measure...every effort to make sure no attacks come to us,” he said.

On the wider situation, as US politicians called for Iran to capitulate and Tehran said it was capable of fighting on for at least another six months, he added: “Our position and our principle will never change, that war always end around the negotiating table with a diplomatic solution. And we would all like to see a de-escalation in the region soon.”

HE Sheikh Mohammed described the current state of affairs in the region as "extremely serious,” and cautioned that security in the region has repercussions for global security, as well as world economic stability. He noted the effect of the Gulf crisis on worldwide energy markets and logistics.

“In the same breath for this tiny little spot in the world, the GCC serves as a significant transit destination point for all of the world. It is less than 350,360 passengers with respect to year passed between Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Things were disrupted by this shake up,” he said.

Qatar provides around 20 percent of the energy in the world, he said. Operations despite some had to be halted on the first day of attacks which definitely impacted international prices considerably. On the second day, he said, attacks had hit the industrial complex which “forced us to shut down a lot of factories (and) manufacturing plants that we have downstream including the fertilizer”.

His Excellency indicated that urea was the second largest item produced by Qatar, which produced approximately 10% of the global output, with relevant positive implications on food and agriculture as well as food security of countries depending on Qatar. The nation is responsible for 35 percent of the world’s helium, a critical element in making medical equipment.

Reiterating that the situation in the GCC has grave implications for regional and international security, he emphasized the need for Iran to halt all attacks against Gulf countries and other belligerent states not a party to conflict, as well as pursue steps to encourage de-escalation and diplomatic solutions wherever possible.

He said that threats to Iranian future resolution must be "cleared". “We cannot sit like this after this event, especially when the missiles go to us and we remain silent...We are not enemy states with each other. We’ve always been trying to help and so we support any kind of efforts to find a diplomatic solution that can lift the sanctions,” he said.

Ordinary Iranians are among those most affected by unrest, HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs said while expressing his hope for the prosperity and stability of the Iranian people and peaceful coexistence between Iran and regional countries.

On this energy infrastructure, he said we experience attacks every day. “Daily almost 40% of the attacks were focused around energy facilities, around 25% of the attacks were focused against civilian facilities, and around 35% of the attacks targeted military facilities including that ended up targeting civilian infrastructure including that International Airport which was attacked multiple times even drinking water storages attacked,” he added. He also wondered what the rationale was for targeting civilian property.

His Excellency urged the parties to the conflict to stop attacks immediately, affirming that Doha will continue dialogue with the Iranians and work for escalation reduction. “The fact that happened is sort of a massive shake up for the trust in the relationship that we have with Iran. We will continue to try to seek de-escalation.” At the end of the day, they are our neighbors"

No other country should be pulled into the war, he added, warning that ongoing attacks would preclude any outside assistance and rational intervention because every single country would be in defense mode.

For the United States, he expressed hopes for de-escalation and a diplomatic path that “takes care of our concerns as well as their concerns.”

On UK and Europe response, HE Sheikh Mohamed lauded European partners for their political support and help in supply chain issues. “The United Kingdom has stood up with Qatar like we trained, and we have delivered outstanding support for Qatar. We have the joint squadron working together side by side with our pilots and we are extremely appreciative of this partnership and this alliance,” he said.

He also defended Europe’s role in the crisis, saying: “I don’t understand why they say that Europe does not do anything. On the general level, yes, but on the bilateral relationship with us and we think also it applies to many other GCC partners that we have seen them demonstrating a very great friendship.”

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