Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah (L) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) hold a joint press conference after their meeting in Tehran, Iran on February 26, 2014. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)[/caption]
This week’s visit to Tehran by the Qatari foreign minister might turn out to be significant. That, at least, is what Iranian officials are claiming. In one way, it was music to the ears of his Iranian hosts when Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah said that Tehran and Doha had agreed on one point: “The Syrian crisis should be resolved through a political solution.”
It was music to Iranian ears, because for the duration of the bloody Syrian war Tehran has publicly argued that a political compromise is the only way to end the three-year-old crisis. From the perspective of Iran’s detractors, the problem with Tehran’s stance is that it has never properly detailed how such a political settlement might look. Tehran speaks of “free elections” to be held in Syria but has not once publicly hinted that such a process could entail the departure of President Bashar Al-Assad, one of the few goals the many disparate groups that make up the Syrian opposition all share. The Iranian position on the need for a political process thus seems like a ploy to buy time for the Assad regime as it seeks to militarily neutralize the Syrian opposition.
Still, going by the joint press conference appearance by Attiyah and Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, you might have been left with the idea that Iranian–Qatari relations were in a state of tranquility. There was talk of all sorts of collaborative projects, including the launch of a proposal to establish a joint free economic zone. There was even discussion of cooperation in the energy sector and particularly the development of South Pars/North Field, which is the largest natural gas field in the world and is jointly owned by Iran and Qatar.
But none of the sweet talk in Tehran can conceal the fact that for some three years now, Tehran and Doha have been engaged in a proxy war on the battlefields of Syria, with Doha supporting the opposition and Iran remaining loyal to the Assad government. Tellingly, Attiyah openly suggested to the Iranian public that Qatar had no intention of changing course when he said, “We consider them [the Syrian rebels] revolutionary people calling for their rights in the face of fire and bullets.” This description is a world apart from Tehran’s depiction of the Syrian conflict, which lumps all the fighting opposition forces together as “terrorists.”
Regardless of the tangible distance that still exists between the two countries, Tehran is at least keen to give the impression that Doha is having second thoughts about its Syria policy. Just this week, a top Iranian parliamentarian, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, visited Damascus and boldly stated: “Today everyone knows that the Syria file is no longer in the hands of Qatar.” He added: “We expect Qatar to play a different role, a new role . . . different from its previous approach.”
All views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, The Majalla magazine.
