{"id":6583,"date":"2026-05-11T11:35:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/former-qatar-pm-netanyahu-using-iran-war-to-reshape-middle-east\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:35:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:35:33","slug":"former-qatar-pm-netanyahu-using-iran-war-to-reshape-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/former-qatar-pm-netanyahu-using-iran-war-to-reshape-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Qatar PM: Netanyahu using Iran war to reshape Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The United States-Israel war on Iran is not the result of a sudden escalation but the culmination of a long-term Israeli agenda to violently reshape the Middle East, former Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani<\/a>\u00a0tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging, candid interview on Al Jazeera\u2019s Al Muqabala<\/em> programme, the veteran diplomat offered a stark assessment of the region\u2019s rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape. He warned that the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is the most perilous consequence of the recent war, cautioned against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s ambitions for a \u201cGreater Israel\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and called for the urgent establishment of a unified Gulf defence pact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are witnessing a major restructuring of the region,\u201d Sheikh Hamad said, noting that the current geopolitical tremors will dictate the shape of the Middle East for decades to come.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s \u2018illusion\u2019 and the US misstep<\/h2>\n

Sheikh Hamad had warned of an impending conflict last year and urged Gulf states to push for a diplomatic resolution to resolve the crisis with Iran and prevent military strikes.<\/p>\n

He identified a push for a conflict with Iran and blamed it on a \u201chardline faction\u201d within Israel led by Netanyahu, who he said had been trying to drag the US into a war over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme since President Bill Clinton\u2019s administration in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

While previous US governments \u2013 including during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term \u2013 hesitated to launch a full-scale war on Iran, Netanyahu finally succeeded by selling Washington an \u201cillusion\u201d, Sheikh Hamad argued. \u201cHe convinced the US administration that the war would be short and swift and that the Iranian regime would fall within weeks,\u201d he said, drawing parallels to failed US efforts to change Venezuela\u2019s government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former Qatari premier criticised Washington\u2019s reliance on military might, saying, \u201cAmerica\u2019s true power has always been in its ability to avoid using force, not in deploying it.\u201d He noted that the current war ultimately has forced all parties back to the negotiating table, suggesting that an additional two weeks of talks in Geneva early this year \u2013 an Oman-led diplomatic push to avoid war<\/a> \u2013 could have averted the catastrophe altogether.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has emerged as the primary beneficiary of the war, Sheikh Hamad observed, saying the Israeli leader is using the chaos to market his vision of forced regional alliances and a \u201cGreater Israel\u201d, a plan among Israel\u2019s right wing to expand the country\u2019s borders deeper into neighbouring Arab states.<\/p>\n

\"A
A container ship sits at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, on May 2, 2026 [Amirhosein Khorgooi\/ISNA via AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Strait of Hormuz: A new global flashpoint<\/h2>\n

Assessing Tehran\u2019s strategy, Sheikh Hamad said Iran successfully absorbed the initial military strikes of the war and subsequently dragged its feet on a settlement after realising it could leverage a new strategic advantage: the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Calling the weaponisation of the waterway the \u201cmost dangerous outcome\u201d of the war, he warned that Iran is now treating the vital international chokepoint as its own sovereign territory. This, he argued, poses a more immediate and severe threat to global economies than the Iranian nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

The Gulf states, rather than Washington, have borne the brunt of this crisis, Sheikh Hamad said, and the former prime minister harshly condemned Iran\u2019s attacks on Gulf energy, industrial and civilian infrastructure under what he said was the guise of targeting US interests, noting that these Gulf nations had explicitly opposed the war.<\/p>\n

As a result, Tehran has exhausted much of its political capital in the Gulf, generating widespread public anger over the economic and security disruptions its actions have caused. However, Sheikh Hamad stressed that geography dictates coexistence and called for a frank, collective Gulf dialogue with Tehran rather than fragmented unilateral communications to establish a realistic framework for the future.<\/p>\n

A call for a \u2018Gulf NATO\u2019<\/h2>\n

In one of his most blunt assessments, Sheikh Hamad declared that the greatest threat to the Gulf is neither Iran, Israel nor foreign military bases but internal Gulf disunity.<\/p>\n

To counter this, he proposed the creation of a \u201cGulf NATO\u201d, a joint political and defence project starting with a core group of strategically aligned Gulf nations with Saudi Arabia serving as its natural backbone. He argued that the European Union began with a small number of states before expanding, suggesting a similar model governed by strict institutionalised laws respected by all members.<\/p>\n

Addressing the US military presence, Sheikh Hamad acknowledged that US bases have provided crucial deterrence for decades. However, he warned that Washington\u2019s strategic pivot towards Asia and the containment of China means the Gulf can no longer rely indefinitely on the US security umbrella, and he urged Gulf states to develop long-term, interest-based strategic partnerships with regional powers such as Turkiye, Pakistan and Egypt.<\/p>\n

Gaza, normalisation and a late-1990s secret<\/h2>\n

Turning to the issue of Palestine, Sheikh Hamad condemned the killing of civilians on all sides but accused Israel of committing a \u201cmoral and political disaster\u201d in Gaza, where more than 72,500 Palestinians have been killed since Israel\u2019s genocidal war began in October \u20602023. He warned of an Israeli plot to depopulate the strip, citing intelligence that money is being offered to encourage Palestinians to leave the enclave, which he said, in effect, is turning Gaza into a real estate project.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging the unprecedented global sympathy the Palestinian cause has garnered since October 7, 2023, particularly in the West, he cautioned Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to carefully weigh the devastating human cost.<\/p>\n

He firmly rejected any discussion of disarming Hamas without a guaranteed political horizon for an independent Palestinian state and praised Saudi Arabia\u2019s steadfast refusal to normalise relations with Israel without a roadmap for this \u2013 a stance, he said, that deeply disrupted Netanyahu\u2019s regional calculations.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on recent regional shifts, Sheikh Hamad expressed relief at the fall of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime in Syria, revealing that he had personally advised the former president early in the revolution to listen to his people. He praised the pragmatism of the new Syrian leadership in avoiding Israeli provocations and urged it to focus on economic and institutional rebuilding after nearly 14 years of war and mismanagement by al-Assad\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The interview also unveiled a piece of hidden diplomatic history. Sheikh Hamad disclosed that in the late 1990s, the Qatari leadership dispatched him to Tehran to deliver a message from the Clinton administration. The US demanded that Iran hand over its nascent nuclear programme to Russia or submit to international arrangements.<\/p>\n

While Qatar acted strictly as a messenger, Tehran at the time viewed Doha as aligned with the American stance, he noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States-Israel war on Iran is not the result of a sudden escalation but the culmination of a long-term Israeli agenda to violently reshape the Middle East, former Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani\u00a0tells Al Jazeera. In a wide-ranging, candid interview on Al Jazeera\u2019s Al Muqabala programme, the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}