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Global Insider: Iran-Qatar Relations
Kari Lipschutz
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28 Jul 2010
As the final installment of a three-part series on Iran's relations with the Gulf states, Global Insider explores Iran-Qatar relations. In an e-mail interview, Mehran Kamrava, interim dean of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar and director of the Center for International and Regional Studies, discusses the state of Iran-Qatar relations. You can read Kamrava's interview on Iran-UAE relations here, and on Iran-Bahrain relations here.
WPR: What is the current state of Iran-Qatar diplomatic relations?
Mehran Kamrava: Unlike the UAE or Bahrain, Qatar has maintained very cordial and close diplomatic relations with Iran over the last few years. This is consistent with the overall pattern and tenor of Qatari foreign policy, which frequently features diplomatic hyper-activism, hedging, and a keen willingness to maintain open lines of communication between parties that are at odds with one another. This has manifested itself in a fair amount of "summit diplomacy" between the two countries, featuring high-level visits to each other's capitals and grand statements about the strength of "brotherly relations" between the two. Whether there is much depth and substance to these high-level visits, however, is open to question. Qatar is home to one of the largest U.S. airbases anywhere in the world, and, similar to the UAE and Bahrain, remains firmly under the protective umbrella of the U.S. military.
WPR: What is the current state of Iran-Qatar trade relations?
Kamrava: Similar to Iran's trade relations with Bahrain, Iran-Qatar trade remains negligible. Both countries have significant deposits of LNG, and the volume of trade between them is extremely small. Significantly, Qatar has been somewhat cool to Iran's proposal to create an OPEC-style forum of gas-exporting countries featuring Qatar, Iran, and Russia.
WPR: How has the standoff between Iran and the P5+1 over Iran's nuclear program impacted relations in both spheres?
Kamrava: The standoff between Iran and the P5+1 over Iran's nuclear program has not had any impact on Iran-Qatari relations. In fact, the United States appears to have had more success in selling the idea of an imminent Iranian threat to the rest of the Persian Gulf to the other GCC members save for Qatar (and Oman). This is consistent with Qatar's policy of hedging, which has sought to strike a proactive balance between antagonistic parties. Given this posture, Qatar, similar to Turkey and Brazil, has effectively positioned itself as a viable potential mediator between the U.S. and Iran should the two seek some form of conciliation in the future.