Comment by alephnerd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alephnerd | Hacker News Reader

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The message matters waaaaay less than the messenger.

Qatar used to be pro-Iran until Iran started striking them 2 weeks ago.

Back when the entire Gulf blockaded Qatar from 2017-21, Qatar depended on Iran [0] for food. Qatar and Iran also had a gentleman's agreement to collaborate with each other to export LNG [1]. Both Qatar and Iran also collaborated with each other to support Hamas [2] and the Houthis [3].

The fact that a Qatari national employed by a think tank that is patronized by the Qatari royal family [4] has published this piece in Qatar's state-owned media is a massive about face and signals how livid Qatari policymakers are.

Heck, Qatar's interior ministry has begun arresting Iranian sympathizers [5], forced Hamas to denounce Iran [6], and taken control of Qatar's subreddit: "You might be anonymous but we aren’t, the mod team is known to the authorities and we’re trying our best to cooperate with them and comply with all the guidelines." [7].

Qatar was Iran's last friend in the Gulf.

[0] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/6/25/iran-hassan-rouhani...

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pars/North_Dome_Gas-Cond...

[2] - https://www.dw.com/en/who-is-hamas/a-57537872

[3] - https://sites.bu.edu/pardeeatlas/research-and-policy/back2sc...

[4] - https://www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/EN/About/Pages/default.aspx

[5] - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/3/qatar-announces-arre...

[6] - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg3xk6xgyzo

[7] - https://www.reddit.com/r/qatar/comments/1rt2fth/timeout/

The kind of pro-Iran state that has hosted the biggest US military base in the Middle East for decades.

International politics are messy, as there are too many actors with their own agendas. You try to avoid taking sides and to stay out of trouble, but sometimes you end up in trouble anyway due to the choices others made.

> The kind of pro-Iran state that has hosted the biggest US military base in the Middle East for decades...

Al Udeid and Exxon's stake in QatarEnergy is Qatar's tribute to the US to not be added onto sanctions lists for conducting business with Iran.

Al Udeid Airbase was only established in 1996 after Iran and Qatar began collaborating on LNG extraction in the early 1990s and after Iran helped put down a coup attempt in Qatar in 1996 [0].

Qatar's Energy Minister - who is also CEO of QatarEnergy - is also a member of Banu Ka'b, an Arab clan that still has blood ties in Ahvaz today.

> International politics are messy

I know. I used to work in the policy space. People really overestimate the history of the US presence in West Asia.

The only states we had deep continuous ties with in the region were Turkiye (their military junta was always pro-American and a core part of Operation Gladio) and Iran until the Shah was deposed.

Israel's primary defense benefactor until the 1990s was France, Saudi's primary defense benefactor until the 1980s was France (it was French special forces that put down al-Otaybi in 1979), and the Gulf+Jordan's was the UK then France.

The US on really entered the region in earnest after the 1973 oil crisis but pulled back after the Iran Embassy Crisis and the Beirut bombings which led the Reagan admin to decide to let the French and their allies+defense partners the Israelis and Turks manage that headache (but we'd gladly bankroll any anti-Soviet activities in the region), and we didn't return to the region until the Gulf War.

[0] - https://www.danielpipes.org/6317/hamad-bin-jasim-bin-jabr-al...

> Israel's primary defense benefactor until the 1990s was France

1960s, and that's the time imo the US became heavily involved in the region

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