War in Iran: Despite Iranian attacks, Doha steps up mediation efforts

In Qatar's capital Doha, mediation efforts between the United States and Iran have been running at a clip. In recent days, Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has held calls with officials in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Kuwait and others to discuss "regional tensions" and "efforts aimed at de-escalation in the region."

Last week and during the weekend, Al Thani also met US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff as part of efforts to permanently end the war with Iran, according to the news outlet Axios.

While the Qatari prime minister has repeatedly said Doha fully supports Pakistan's leading mediation role, this appears to show the Gulf state is increasingly expanding its own diplomatic outreach.

"Qatar is playing a vital behind-the-scenes role," Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told DW.

"They are key in bridging divides between Tehran and Washington despite the war and the Iranian strikes," she said, adding that Doha has still good ties with the Trump administration and is playing effectively what is a complementary mediation role.

This view is echoed by US officials who said, according to Axios, that Qataris had been "especially effective in negotiations in Iran."

Anna Jacobs, a Gulf analyst and non-resident fellow at the Washington-based think tank Arab Gulf States Institute (AGSI), also points out that "Qatar has a longer history and experience of US and Iran mediation, as well as intimate knowledge of the Gulf regional security landscape in ways that Pakistan just doesn't."

In her view, the US will want to lean more toward Qatari mediation with Iran moving forward.

Qatar's strategic position

Successful mediation between the US and Iran would also deliver domestic gains for Qatar.

"Doha's mediation efforts prioritize de-escalation as well as reaching a workable agreement between the US and Iran that could keep the Strait of Hormuz open and safe for commercial shipping," Jacobs told DW.

The small Gulf state, a close US ally, was heavily targeted by Iranian missiles and drones following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. Qatar has hosted Al Udeid Air Base — the largest US military base in the Middle East — outside Doha, since 2001.

Qatar, the world's second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer, also had to suspend production in March after Iran struck its main gas facility, Ras Laffan. Doha also remains heavily affected by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has halted oil exports from Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, and sharply restricted shipments from Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"Qatar has been among the countries most affected by the closure of the Strait as it relies on this critical trade route for nearly all of its LNG exports," Jacobs told DW.

Signs that those efforts may already be easing tensions emerged Sunday, when the Financial Times reported that, for the first time since the war began on February, 28, a tanker carrying Qatari liquefied natural gas bound for Pakistan had passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to commodities analytics firm Kpler.

On Tuesday, the Qatari outlet Doha News reported a second LNG tanker is approaching the Strait of Hormuz en route to Pakistan. News agency Reuters said Iran approved the transfer to build confidence with its mediators Qatar and Pakistan.

Doha's history of mediation efforts

For decades, Qatar has positioned diplomacy and mediation as cornerstones of its regional strategy and national identity.

Doha has close ties with Washington, a strong working relationship with Tehran — which backs Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen — as well as the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libyan militias and non-state actors in Syria.

"Qatar has maintained ties with rogue states, terrorist groups, and other non-state actors over many years, often at the request of the United States," Anna Jacobs recently argued in an op-ed on the Arab Gulf States Institute's website.

However, despite years of experience and past rounds of success, it ultimately remains up to the US and Iran to end the current conflict, Jacobs told DW.

"And this still seems far off," she said.

Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the British think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agrees.

"It takes two to tango: President Trump has been confronted by a heavily bruised but resilient Iranian regime, and perhaps one operating on borrowed time, but Tehran has turned the Operation Epic Fury into an uncomfortable stalemate," she told DW, adding that currently, mediation attempts have hit a wall.

"The war's binary dynamic has imposed structural constraints on regional diplomatic peacemakers like Qatar," Ozcelik said. She believes the failure of Islamabad and Doha to navigate a way out of this quagmire is not due to a lack of good intention, but rather that success and failure are being contested by the US and Iran in a historic confrontation that has been in the making since 1979.

"This reveals the limitations of what regional actors and aspiring middle powers can achieve to move the dial on a conflict that is dominated militarily, strategically and economically by the US and Iran," she told DW, adding that the predicament is that for any bilateral US-Iran deal to hold, regional buy-in will be essential, especially by Gulf states.

"This means that ensuring that Gulf interests and concerns are reflected in the talks is essential for longer term stability after any deal that emerges," Ozcelik said.

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Edited by: Cai Nebe