Qatar urges Iran to halt attacks as strikes target civilian sites

Qatar Iran tensions

In its statement, Qatar repeated calls for Iran to stop attacking it and other parts of the region in response to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s call for an investigation into whether targeted sites are tied to the United States.

“The solution is straightforward: he ceases his aggression against the nations that didn’t attack him. This does not necessitate an investigative committee or teams being jointly formed. What it needs is simply a decision by the attacking party to end its aggression on the attacked party,” Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said.

U.S. drone used to attack Arab countries is similar to Iranian Shahid: Araghchi

The remarks follow a suggestion by Araghchi of a joint investigation along with some neighboring countries of the strikes to identify which targets were hit, as well whether they are linked to American entities.

At the same time, he claimed that the U.S. had developed drones similar to those Iran used in strikes against Arab states.

“We also recently received information indicating that the United States and Israel fire missiles toward Arab countries from certain points,” Araghchi said, who previously has kept up a steady refrain that Iran must be striking at American interests in the region.

“For instance, the Americans have built a similar drone to our Shahed drone, which they named ‘Lucas’. It is used to hit targets in Arab countries. We are studying this information, but I also believe that Israel may be aiming for civilian sites to harm our relations with our Arab friends,” he added.

Since the U.S. and Israel began their initial attacks against Iranian territory on 28 February, which sparked the slides into the current cycle of escalation in the region, Iran has assaulted what it has claimed are American assets in the region.

Qatar — which has regularly acted as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran — said Iran had hit some civilian sites.

Iran had struck one of QatarEnergy’s energy facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City and a power plant water tank in Mesaieed.

During the FM’s Qatar visit, Sisi also expressed his greetings to Sheikh Tamim.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani rejected Iran’s assertions that its attacks were not targeting Doha in a 4 March phone call with Araghchi.

Al-Ansari told the media in his recent briefing that Iranian attacks have been ongoing every day since regional escalations began.

“It is very difficult for me to even reply to Mr. Araghchi’s statement, given that these attacks happen every single day and the threat of civilians continues,” Al-Ansari said.

“There’s nothing better than being able to just go back, and the fact that over a weekend we had to evacuate civilians — students and faculty — is just one of those realisations [of] what it means for the people who are living in these kinds of conditions,” he continued, praising Qatar’s capacity to protect populaces.

Iran is hitting the region “in an unprovoked way,” al-Ansari said.

“The very simple truth at the moment is that if they stop the attacks we can find a way out through diplomacy, but as long as our countries are being attacked then this is not the time to form committees,” he said.

Al-Ansari said Sunday was attacked “with five different drones”, adding that most of the attacks have been intercepted by the armed forces.

Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that it had intercepted two waves of attacks.

“Our current priority is to defend our countries and protect them from Iranian attacks,” Al-Ansari said.