Majed al-Ansari: Islamic Republic's attack on the Gulf was a government decision born of desperation

Majed al-Ansari, spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry and adviser to the country's prime minister, called the Islamic Republic's attack on the Gulf states a deliberate political decision, taken at the level of the Islamic Republic's leadership a few hours after 28 February. In an interview broadcast on Saturday, 17 October, he said the decision stemmed from a miscalculation and from desperation, not from the strength of the other side or from any weakness in the defences and alliances of the Gulf states.

According to al-Ansari, the attack turned the Islamic Republic from a neighbour with which the region had hoped to normalise relations into a source of threat, and the Gulf states now stand facing its "hostile behaviour". He recalled that the attack on Doha came at a time when Qatar was serving as a mediator, and described the targeting of Al Udeid Air Base, which is of strategic importance to Qatar and the United States, as significant.

Attack on the Gulf's energy infrastructure

The Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that the Islamic Republic's attacks targeted the economic infrastructure of countries in the region, including Qatari gas, Aramco facilities and facilities and ports in the UAE. He said the Gulf states' air defences intercepted more than 90 percent of the attacks and that the attacks cannot be justified in any framework. According to him, Qatar's energy exports have largely stopped with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but he called reports of a 42 percent drop in revenues false and said Qatar's economic indicators remain positive.

Al-Ansari added that the Joint Defence Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council met immediately after the attack on Doha, and that the field coordination between the member states' armed forces has been unprecedented since the occupation of Kuwait in 1990. He also called the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia unjustifiable.

The Islamic Republic's regional isolation

The remarks of the Qatari spokesman, from a country that was for years a channel of dialogue with Tehran, show that the Islamic Republic has lost even its closest mediators in the region. The stance joins the condemnation of the Houthi attacks at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Baghdad and Saudi intelligence assessments of the IRGC's role in targeting those attacks. Al-Ansari said geography is unchangeable, but any country that wants to be part of the region must first accept the principles of good neighbourliness.

Qatar, Tehran's longtime mediator, called the Islamic Republic's attack on the Gulf a deliberate government decision born of desperation.