Qatar: We thwarted an attack on the airport in Doha

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar announced today (Tuesday) that the country foiled an attack against Hamad International Airport in the capital Doha. He also said that “the claim that pressure on the Gulf countries will lead to the renewal of negotiations with Iran is wrong” following the Iranian attacks.

The spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Majid Al-Ansari, said that following the thwarted attack on Hamad Airport, more than 8,000 passengers who arrived there as part of a transition between flights were stuck – and were housed in hotels in Doha. He also emphasized that there are also passengers on tourist ships who were stuck in Qatar, and they were also accommodated in hotels.

“We did not receive advance warning from Iran about the missile attacks,” Al-Ansari said.. “The target is not only military facilities, but includes the entire territory of the country. Such attacks will not go unanswered.”

The announcement of the attempted attack on the central and important airport in Qatar, one of the largest and most important in the Middle East, comes as part of a long series of Iranian attacks against targets in Qatar and other countries in the Gulf. Yesterday, Al-Ansari said that “Iran must pay the price for its blatant attacks against our people, such an attack cannot go unanswered.”

Qatar’s Ministry of Defense announced yesterday that it had shot down two SU24 fighter jets of the Iranian Air Force, and at the same time yesterday an Iranian drone attack on energy infrastructures in Qatar was thwarted. As a result, the energy giant “Qatar Energy” announced yesterday the halt in the production and export of liquefied natural gas. As a result, gas prices in Europe rose by at least 30% today, according to the AFP news agency.

If on the first day of the war Iran claimed that the attacks against the Gulf countries were aimed only at the American forces stationed there, and that they had no interest in harming those countries, today it is already evident that this equation has completely changed.

Today, Iranian drones hit oil and energy infrastructure in the port of Risot in the city of Salalah in Oman, and even before that an oil tanker was hit in the port of Duqm in Oman. Oman is perhaps the friendliest country to Iran in the Gulf, and served as the mediator in the negotiations with the US.

At the same time as Iran’s attacks in Oman, oil infrastructures were also attacked in the Emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. In pictures from the scene, heavy and thick black smoke can be seen billowing into the distance. At the same time, also this morning and throughout the last few days, there were explosions and attacks in Doha, Dubai, Manama and other major destinations in the Gulf.

According to the estimates, Iran aims to exert heavy pressure on the Gulf countries – so that they pressure Trump to end the war as soon as possible. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal this morning, it is estimated that the Gulf countries will not be able to continue intercepting more attacks by Iran at the same rate starting in just a few days, due to a shortage of interceptor missiles. Both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have denied that they face an interceptor missile crisis. The spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry also said that the assessment that he put pressure on the Gulf countries to lead to pressure on Trump to end the war is wrong.