Qatar warns any military escalation between the US and Iran would have catastrophic regional consequences, urging diplomacy amid threats of strikes over Iran’s protest crackdown.
DOHA: Qatar has warned that any military escalation between the United States and Iran would have catastrophic consequences for the region.
Foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said this at a press conference in Doha on Tuesday, following US threats of strikes over Iran’s crackdown on protests.
“We know that any escalation… would have catastrophic results in the region and beyond, and therefore we want to avoid that as much as possible,” Ansari said.
The White House repeated on Monday that US President Donald Trump is considering air strikes on Iran to stop the crackdown.
Mass protests in Iran since last Thursday pose one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
In response to Trump’s threats, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would hit back.
He called the US military and shipping “legitimate targets” in comments broadcast by state TV.
Rights groups have reported a growing death toll in the Islamic republic.
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 648 people were killed during the protests, including nine minors.
It warned the actual death toll was likely much higher, with some estimates exceeding 6,000.
Washington has also said a channel for diplomacy remains open.
Ansari stated Qatar is involved in talking to all parties to find a diplomatic solution.
“We are still at a state right now where we believe that the diplomatic resolution can come out of this,” he added.
In June, Iran targeted the United States’ Al Udeid military base in Qatar in response to earlier American strikes.
Doha leveraged that attack on its soil to help deliver a speedy truce between Washington and Tehran.
