America-Israel struggle on Iran isn’t the results of a unexpected escalation however the fruits of a long-term Israeli time table to violently reshape the Heart East, former Qatari Top Minister and Overseas Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani tells Al Jazeera.
In a wide-ranging, candid interview on Al Jazeera’s Al Muqabala programme, the veteran diplomat presented a stark evaluate of the area’s swiftly transferring geopolitical panorama. He warned that the disaster within the Strait of Hormuz is essentially the most perilous end result of the hot struggle, cautioned towards Israeli Top Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ambitions for a “Greater Israel” and referred to as for the pressing established order of a unified Gulf defence pact.
“We are witnessing a major restructuring of the region,” Sheikh Hamad mentioned, noting that the present geopolitical tremors will dictate the form of the Heart East for many years to return.
Netanyahu’s ‘illusion’ and america misstep
Sheikh Hamad had warned of an imminent battle closing yr and instructed Gulf states to push for a diplomatic solution to unravel the disaster with Iran and save you army moves.
He known a push for a battle with Iran and blamed it on a “hardline faction” inside Israel led by way of Netanyahu, who he mentioned were looking to drag america right into a struggle over Tehran’s nuclear programme since President Invoice Clinton’s management within the Nineties.
Whilst earlier US governments – together with all through President Donald Trump’s first time period – hesitated to release a full-scale struggle on Iran, Netanyahu in spite of everything succeeded by way of promoting Washington an “illusion”, Sheikh Hamad argued. “He convinced the US administration that the war would be short and swift and that the Iranian regime would fall within weeks,” he mentioned, drawing parallels to failed US efforts to switch Venezuela’s executive.
The previous Qatari premier criticised Washington’s reliance on army may, announcing, “America’s true power has always been in its ability to avoid using force, not in deploying it.” He famous that the present struggle in the end has compelled all events again to the negotiating desk, suggesting that an extra two weeks of talks in Geneva early this yr – an Oman-led diplomatic push to keep away from struggle – can have avoided the disaster altogether.
Netanyahu has emerged as the principle beneficiary of the struggle, Sheikh Hamad noticed, announcing the Israeli chief is the use of the chaos to marketplace his imaginative and prescient of compelled regional alliances and a “Greater Israel”, a plan amongst Israel’s proper wing to extend the rustic’s borders deeper into neighbouring Arab states.
A container send sits at anchor within the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Would possibly 2, 2026 [Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP]The Strait of Hormuz: A brand new world flashpoint
Assessing Tehran’s technique, Sheikh Hamad mentioned Iran effectively absorbed the preliminary army moves of the struggle and therefore dragged its toes on a agreement after realising it would leverage a brand new strategic merit: the Strait of Hormuz.
Calling the weaponisation of the waterway the “most dangerous outcome” of the struggle, he warned that Iran is now treating the necessary global chokepoint as its personal sovereign territory. This, he argued, poses a extra instant and critical danger to world economies than the Iranian nuclear programme.
The Gulf states, fairly than Washington, have borne the brunt of this disaster, Sheikh Hamad mentioned, and the previous high minister harshly condemned Iran’s assaults on Gulf power, business and civilian infrastructure underneath what he mentioned was once the guise of focused on US pursuits, noting that those Gulf international locations had explicitly adversarial the struggle.
Consequently, Tehran has exhausted a lot of its political capital within the Gulf, producing common public anger over the industrial and safety disruptions its movements have led to. On the other hand, Sheikh Hamad wired that geography dictates coexistence and referred to as for a frank, collective Gulf discussion with Tehran fairly than fragmented unilateral communications to determine a sensible framework for the longer term.
A choice for a ‘Gulf NATO’
In one among his maximum blunt exams, Sheikh Hamad declared that the best danger to the Gulf is neither Iran, Israel nor overseas army bases however inner Gulf disunity.
To counter this, he proposed the introduction of a “Gulf NATO”, a joint political and defence mission beginning with a core staff of strategically aligned Gulf international locations with Saudi Arabia serving as its herbal spine. He argued that the Eu Union started with a small choice of states sooner than increasing, suggesting a equivalent fashion ruled by way of strict institutionalised rules revered by way of all participants.
Addressing america army presence, Sheikh Hamad said that US bases have equipped an important deterrence for many years. On the other hand, he warned that Washington’s strategic pivot in opposition to Asia and the containment of China approach the Gulf can now not depend indefinitely on america safety umbrella, and he instructed Gulf states to increase long-term, interest-based strategic partnerships with regional powers reminiscent of Turkiye, Pakistan and Egypt.
Gaza, normalisation and a late-Nineties secret
Turning to the problem of Palestine, Sheikh Hamad condemned the killing of civilians on either side however accused Israel of committing a “moral and political disaster” in Gaza, the place greater than 72,500 Palestinians had been killed since Israel’s genocidal struggle started in October 2023. He warned of an Israeli plot to depopulate the strip, mentioning intelligence that cash is being presented to inspire Palestinians to go away the enclave, which he mentioned, in impact, is popping Gaza into an actual property mission.
Whilst acknowledging the exceptional world sympathy the Palestinian motive has garnered since October 7, 2023, in particular within the West, he cautioned Palestinian factions, together with Hamas, to scrupulously weigh the devastating human price.
He firmly rejected any dialogue of disarming Hamas with out a assured political horizon for an unbiased Palestinian state and praised Saudi Arabia’s steadfast refusal to normalise family members with Israel with out a roadmap for this – a stance, he mentioned, that deeply disrupted Netanyahu’s regional calculations.
Reflecting on fresh regional shifts, Sheikh Hamad expressed aid on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, revealing that he had individually suggested the previous president early within the revolution to hear his other folks. He praised the pragmatism of the brand new Syrian management in averting Israeli provocations and instructed it to concentrate on financial and institutional rebuilding after just about 14 years of struggle and mismanagement by way of al-Assad’s executive.
The interview additionally unveiled a work of hidden diplomatic historical past. Sheikh Hamad disclosed that within the past due Nineties, the Qatari management dispatched him to Tehran to ship a message from the Clinton management. The United States demanded that Iran quit its nascent nuclear programme to Russia or post to global preparations.
Whilst Qatar acted strictly as a messenger, Tehran on the time seen Doha as aligned with the American stance, he famous.
