The United Arab Emirates and Qatar are privately lobbying allies to help them persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to take retreat measures that would shorten the duration of U.S. military operations against Iran, Bloomberg news agency reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The sources said the countries are seeking to build a broad coalition to end the conflict quickly and diplomatically to prevent regional escalation and continue the energy price shock.
Both the UAE and Qatar are working to rapidly improve their air defence capabilities, sources familiar with the matter said. Qatari and UAE officials did not respond to requests for comment.
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The UAE has asked its allies for help in medium-range air defence against drones, which have become a bigger threat than ballistic missiles, the sources added. Qatar’s stockpile of Patriot interceptor missiles will last four days at the current rate of use, according to an internal analysis seen by reporters.
Qatar’s assessment of the situation released by Bloomberg includes a caveat that if shipping lanes in the region remain severely disrupted until the middle of this week, they expect a larger market reaction to natural gas prices than Monday’s sharp rise.
The agency notes that Qatar has halted liquefied natural gas production at the world’s largest export facility after it was targeted in an Iranian drone attack that sent European gas prices up more than 50 per cent.
The joint operation between the United States and Israel in the first wave of strikes on 28 February resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a significant number of other senior Iranian regime officials.
In response, Iran’s military has attacked not only Israel or US military installations in the region with missiles and drones, but also many of its regional neighbours, which Tehran considers allies of the United States. Explosions have been reported in Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Not only military but also civilian targets like apartment blocks, hotels or airports were hit. Also the militaries of European countries present in the Middle East were attacked.
US President Donald Trump, when asked by the Daily Mail about the likely duration of the United States and Israel’s operation against the Iranian regime, said that “it will take four weeks or less”.