WASHINGTON: Qatar is restoring full diplomatic relations with Iran and will send its ambassador back to Tehran.
Doha severed ties with Iran in early 2016 when mobs ransacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad. Their restoration will further strain relations with its Arabian Gulf neighbors, and is likely to anger the US.
The Anti-Terror Quartet — comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt — severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in June and imposed a trade and travel boycott in protest at Doha’s support for militant groups and interference in the domestic affairs of its neighbors. Kuwait has tried to mediate and the US has called for reconciliation, but the rift shows no signs of easing.
Doha’s restoration of diplomatic relations with Tehran does not necessarily suggest an alliance, but “undoubtedly will be seen as a move in the wrong direction by both Washington and the quartet of Arab states pressing Qatar to cut its ties to violent extremists,” David Andrew Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Arab News.
“This is especially likely given that an enormous alleged ransom payment from Qatar to Iran and to Iranian-backed armed groups in Iraq has been described as the action that may have triggered the Quartet’s sanctions against Qatar.”
David DesRoches, professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, told Arab News: “This doesn’t appear to me to be a good move at this time. It will not be well received in Washington, and works against the Qatari narrative that they have been unfairly targeted.”
While geography necessitated some cooperation between Qatar and Iran “this could be accomplished without taking this action,” he said.
Iran “welcomes this measure by the Qatari government,” its Foreign Ministry said.
Doha said the Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif had discussed bilateral relations in a telephone call.
Qatar restores diplomatic ties with Iran
Qatar restores diplomatic ties with Iran
Syria accuses Hezbollah of firing shells into its territory
- “The Syrian Arab Army will not tolerate any aggression targeting Syria,” the army said in a statement to SANA
DAMASCUS: Syria said Iran-backed Hezbollah had fired artillery shells into its territory from Lebanon overnight, state media reported on Tuesday, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shia movement.
Syrian army officials said artillery shells fired from Lebanon landed near the town of Serghaya, west of Damascus, the state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.
The army accused Hezbollah of targeting Syrian army positions, telling the news agency it observed Hezbollah reinforcements at the Syrian-Lebanese border.
“The Syrian Arab Army will not tolerate any aggression targeting Syria,” the army said in a statement to SANA.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have clashed in eastern Lebanon in recent days, and Israel has carried out strikes across Lebanon, including on the capital Beirut.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Hezbollah of working to “collapse” the state, while the head of the group’s parliamentary bloc said it had “no other option... than the option of resistance.”
Hezbollah provided military support to former Syrian president Bashar Assad, who was overthrown in December 2024 by an Islamist coalition hostile to the pro-Iranian Shia movement.
Since then, its supply routes from Syria have been cut off, and Lebanese and Syrian authorities are trying to combat smuggling across the porous border between the two countries.
