Qatar Secretly Sought Iranian Guarantee to Spare Key Gas Facility, Report Says

Qatar, while presenting itself as a mediator in the region, secretly opened a direct channel to Iran to protect its strategic Ras Laffan gas complex, according to intelligence documents described in a Washington Post report published Friday. Security officials in the Middle East and the West said Doha was trying to secure what one senior regional official called a simple condition: “You do not attack us.”

The reported Qatari offer was to halt gas production unilaterally, a move that would have driven global energy prices sharply higher and increased economic pressure on the United States and Israel to end the fighting. Intercepted communications indicated that Qatar’s message to Iran was that Tehran could achieve its strategic goals “without striking us.”

At the start of the war, Qatar announced that Ras Laffan was being shut because of “military attacks on facilities,” but a Washington Post review of satellite images found no physical damage at the site. Qatar’s energy minister also warned global markets that the war could “bring down the economies in the world.” The Qatari government denied any unusual coordination with Iran, saying that any suggestion operational decisions were made in coordination with Tehran, for its benefit or to influence the war, was “categorically false,” and that the steps were taken only for worker safety.

The effort to hedge against risk failed. On March 18, after Israeli strikes hit Iranian gas facilities, Tehran fired a major barrage and Ras Laffan was directly hit, shutting down about 20 percent of Qatar’s gas exports. Officials in Washington said the U.S. administration, including the CIA, knew about the secret contacts. The report portrays Qatar as balancing its role as a Western-facing mediator with an effort to secure peace with Iran at almost any cost, even at the expense of allied interests.