Qatar is holding talks with Oman and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions in the region, the country’s Foreign Ministry has said, after a recent flare-up in fighting between the US and Iran. Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari warned on Tuesday against normalising the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, where the war between Iran and the US has seen shipping in the waterway grind almost to a halt. We encourage all sides to be wise and return to negotiations.” Around 25 percent of the world’s seaborne trade passed through the strait before Israel and the US launched a war on Iran on February 28, reducing traffic in the waterway to a trickle.
The US has enforced a blockade on Iranian ports, while Iran has been accused of laying mines and attacking tankers in the waterway. Energy prices have since skyrocketed, affecting economies across the world. Iran and Oman have held talks on opening a temporary route through the Strait of Hormuz, but Tehran wants the US to first return to a memorandum of understanding agreed in June.
Qatar, which has been economically impacted by the war, has encouraged a peaceful resolution to the crisis and is in contact with regional leaders to encourage dialogue, Al-Ansari said. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani visited Tehran last week to encourage dialogue to end the crisis. Recent weeks have also seen a spike in pogroms by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, with Palestinian homes and villages besieged.
Al-Ansari accused Israel of using the war on Iran “to impose a new reality in Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories” and accused it of beginning a new regional escalation.
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