Qatar calls for 'immediate' end to war on Iran after attack on gas facility

Qatar called for an “immediate” end to the US-Israeli war on Iran, becoming the first major Gulf energy producer to explicitly call for a halt to the conflict without conditions. 

“This war needs to stop immediately. The aggression needs to stop immediately,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Thursday, alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Qatar’s call for an immediate end to the war is notable because a statement issued by Arab and Muslim countries on Wednesday did not call for an unconditional halt in fighting. Instead, it called for an immediate halt in Iranian attacks and generally condemned Tehran.

That statement was issued by Egypt; Saudi Arabia; Turkey; the UAE; Azerbaijan; Pakistan; Qatar; Kuwait; Lebanon; Jordan; and Syria after a meeting in Riyadh.

"Everyone knows who the main beneficiary of this war is, and dragging the whole region into this conflict is,” Thani added.

His comments are likely to be interpreted as a reference to Israel, whose attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field and facilities this week prompted an Iranian reprisal against energy production sites in the Arab Gulf.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi wrote in The Economist that it was in neither the US's nor Iran's interest to continue the war, which he said Israel wants to pursue to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Unlike the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Oman has little energy wealth. 

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Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility suffered extensive damage after it was hit with missiles, QatarEnergy's CEO, Saad al-Kaabi, told Reuters on Thursday.

Kaabi said that the Iranian attack knocked ‌out 17 percent of Qatar's LNG export capacity, causing an estimated $20bn in lost annual revenue. He added that repairs will take three to five years.

The impact of the attack will spread to consumers in Asia and Europe, where gas prices are rapidly rising.

Qatar supplies around 20 percent of the world’s LNG, and energy experts say that there is no immediate replacement for Qatari gas. 

Iran also demonstrated it can hit deep into Saudi Arabia. An Iranian attack targeted the vicinity of the kingdom’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, which has emerged as the main export facility for Saudi Arabian crude, with the Strait of Hormuz now controlled by Iran.