Name: Gulf states push diplomacy as Iran vows war will end only on its terms
Uploaded: 2026-03-16T23:02:14.000Z
Duration: 10 min 2 s
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Victoria, you're monitoring developments across the Gulf country, which continues to come under Iranian fire, whether it's from missiles or drones on a daily basis.

Yeah, well, GCC countries are continuing to call for de escalation and dialogue.

They say that this is not their war to fight, that they are adopting a defensive posture, not an offensive one with Iran.

So we heard in the, in the press conference earlier by the Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesman that they want de escalation.

They want these attacks on Qatar to stop immediately.

He said that there could be no negotiation, no consideration about what Iran wanted to talk about until the attacks on Qatar and the GCC stopped.

Having said that, just an hour ago, a couple of hours after that press conference was held, we heard yet again two missile attacks being intercepted.

The Ministry of Defense have confirmed that all the missiles were intercepted.

But it's interesting timing given that that press conference happened a couple of hours ago.

In terms of the wider GCC and diplomacy, Arab leaders say they have been warning for years, really since Israel's war on Gaza about the regional instability in this, in this region.

They're calling for de escalation and diplomacy, diplomatic activity here.

Well, the Egyptian Foreign Minister has been meeting with Qatar's emir and also the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar.

Now the Egyptian Foreign Minister has mooted the idea that really the GCC has to have a more kind of collective security posture.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman really saying that that wasn't discussed in their meeting.

They concentrated on the immediate attacks that they're having to deal with from Iran as a region, so calling for de escalation and dialogue.

But it seems from what we've just witnessed in the last hour that Iran is not ready yet to, to change strategy.

Gulf countries continue to condemn Iran for its attacks on the Gulf and across the region.

And they continue to call on Iran to stop those attacks.

Meanwhile, you've been following latest statements from the Iranian Foreign Ministry, amongst others.

the latest comes from Iranian Foreign Minister himself, Abbas Arafji, who came about this very recent situation and of course I'm citing him.

That we say that we don't want war doesn't mean that we say that we don't.

War is not because we want sustained war, but

because we want the war to be finished in a situation In a way that our adversaries do not think about the repetition of aggression and attack.

So this is a sort of concern that is out there for Iranians now that they are in the middle of a full fledged all out war scenario.

And now that they are saying that they are ready for a long time war, for a war of attrition, they are worried that in case of a cease fire, there is a possibility for next rounds of attacks to be coming.

And on that we know that the Iranian foreign minister said that right now negotiation or ceasefire is not being considered in Tehran.

And that is exactly coming from the same reason.

And of course added to that is this context, this background that we have to keep in mind.

Iranians were actually in the middle of a negotiation back negotiation back in June when the country all of a sudden faced an attack.

And this time, again that was dancing with the same old tune.

They were planning to have further rounds of talks and negotiations with the Americans, with the UN nuclear watchdog.

But all of a sudden again, they faced another campaign of strikes.

This time they, the scope is not comparable to the previous time.

So there is a sort of pragmatically calibrated conservatism inside these when it comes to these actually possibilities to be considered for negotiation.

And we hear not just from the Foreign Ministry but also from other officials of the country that they are, they're all saying that right now negotiation is not on the table.

Meanwhile, there is this regional controversy and Iran is trying to address that as well.

First it was the Iranian President Masutan coming out to apologize to the regional countries.

And of course the gist of the matter, again repeated by different Iranian officials, is that we are not at war with regional countries.

We are at war with the US bases which are located in the region.

And they had this warning given ahead of these, these recent round of confrontations.

They said that in case any third country give gives the green light to the Americans or Israelis to use their airspace, to use their land territories, to target, to target the Iranian territories, the response is going to be retaliatory.

The response is going to be a tit for tat strategy.

And now with this tension ramping up to a nonprecedented level after the US President invited other countries to get in, again we hear this from Iranian spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign affairs that in case of any country, either regional or beyond that getting involved to this already escalated situation, the repercussion is going to be for those countries who are getting involved.

Tawhid, you know what we're going to do, we're going to play for our viewers what both the Iranians and the Gulf officials have said, starting with the Iranian foreign minister who says that Tehran has not asked for a cease fire or exchanged any messages with the US Abbas Arakchi has also given his response to President Trump's call for other countries to support securing the Strait of Hormuz.

The Americans are asking other countries to come and help them so that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, which of course, from our perspective, it is open.

It is only close to our enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.

The denial of attacking civilian targets.

Since the Iranian attacks have started on Qatar, the threats and the attacks on civilian targets have not stopped, including last Saturday when a missile with the trajectory towards the residential area was intercepted.

And threats came out of unofficial media outlets of Iranians claiming specific companies and specific geographies that will be attacked in residential areas and commercial areas in Qatar.

These attacks have targeted our LNG facilities in Raslafan.

They have targeted the industrial complex in Neumse.

They have targeted the airport, Hamad International Airport.

They have targeted, as I said, residential areas.

And I find it very difficult to even respond to what Mr.

Arabchi said in the light that these attacks are ongoing every day and the threat to civilians is ongoing every day.

The fact that we had to evacuate civilians and students and faculty during the weekend is just one realization of what this means for the people who are living in these conditions.

But we also assert that we have been able to this point, due to the bravery of the people in our armed forces, to withstand all of these threats and attacks without any real damage to the safety and security of Qatar.

So off the back of that, you were just listening to the spokesperson for the Qatar Foreign Ministry.

Let's bring in back in Victoria Gatenby and discuss that a little bit more.

Qatar like, and this mirrors what other Gulf countries have been saying.

They are of course, very angry at the repeated attacks from Iran on their territory.

We just heard that their second biggest problem, you could argue their biggest problem is actually the Strait of Hormuz, which is choked off and blocked by Iran.

And that prevents these energy rich countries from exporting their oil and gas, which is their entire means of sustenance for their economy, to their consumers around the world.

that's one of the points that the Foreign Ministry spokesman was making in that press conference.

That they can't change the geography of this region.

It has to find a way of working with Iran once this is over.

So one of the reasons they've always up to now kept diplomatic channels open is because they've, they've had to have a relationship with them.

Now the Strait of Hormuz is, as you say, crucial to not only Qatar, but

all the oil and gas exporting countries in this region.

They cannot get oil and gas out and that is, he admitted, a huge problem.

Problem not only for this region but for the wider world.

You know, Europe, Asia relies on the gas that is supplied by this region.

Qatar has one of the world's largest gas fields.

It has, it provides 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas.

And at the moment it's paused its production because it says it has to protect its workers and its vital infrastructure.

Similar problem to the oil producing countries that they've got the same problem.

So he was saying, you know, there is a committee, talk of a committee being established to possibly coordinate the escorting of cargo ships through that strait.

He said Qatar had not made a decision on that yet, that he might have more information on that after the Eid holidays.