QATAR PERSPECTIVE

Doha, July 8, 2026. The US strikes against Iranian targets in southern Iran, launched on Tuesday according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) "in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz," resonate in Qatar with particular gravity: one of the tankers targeted on the night of July 7 is Qatari. The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Al-Rekayyat tanker had been hit while transiting near the strait, describing the incident as a "serious and explicit violation of international law." Spokesman Majed Al-Ansari demanded that the "Islamic Republic of Iran immediately cease all practices that undermine regional security or threaten international maritime navigation security," adding that Tehran must "refrain from endangering global energy supplies." Doha held Iran "fully and legally responsible" for the attack and its consequences.

This aggression against a Qatari-flagged vessel comes as the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, signed in June between Washington and Tehran to stabilize maritime traffic, seemed to have established a lull of over a week. The simultaneous attack on the Saudi tanker Wedyan and an LNG tanker off the coast of Oman immediately sparked a wave of regional solidarity: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan denounced an Iranian aggression violating UN Security Council Resolution 2817, which guarantees freedom of navigation.

For Doha, the US response, which triggered several explosions reported by Iranian state television in Sirik, on Qeshm Island, and in Bandar Abbas, illustrates the risks of a fragile ceasefire since the end of the Israeli-American war against Iran, which began in late February. Washington has also revoked the petroleum waiver granted to Tehran in June, with a US official deeming Iranian actions in the strait "totally unacceptable." Qatar, whose major energy trade depends on this strategic corridor, sees Iran's challenge to its authority over the strait as a direct threat to its exports and national security.