Qatar Joins Other Persian Gulf Countries Opposing Military Action Against Iran

Here's more coverage of the reaction to what appears to be a US buildup for a possible attack against Iran, from the Russian news agency RIA Novosti:

ABU DHABI, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Qatar shares the position of other Persian Gulf countries in opposing any military action against Iran and stands for good neighborly relations with the Islamic Republic, the foreign minister said Thursday.

Iran is under UN sanctions over its failure to halt uranium enrichment, and Washington has refused to rule out a military operation against Iran as a way of forcing its compliance with the demands of the global community, which fears Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.

To me it seems like quite a stretch to cast the USA's position -- which is quite at odds with international law -- as "the demands of the global community", especially since the global community, to the extent that such a thing exists, appears to be coalescing against the USA. But on the other hand bogus analysis is everywhere and we've only come here for the news:

"Qatar will not participate in any military actions against Iran," the Qatari Al-Raya newspaper quoted Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmad Abdullah Al-Mahmud as saying.

The minister said that all six member-countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf are seeking to maintain friendly relations with Iran, based on geographical proximity, common history and mutual interests.

The Council is a regional trade bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All six of these countries are shown on the map below.

(You can click on this map to enlarge it.)

The United States has reportedly been building up its Air Force and Navy contingent near oil-rich Iran, while Russian intelligence experts have even suggested that the U.S. could launch tactical nuclear strikes on the country's underground nuclear sites.

It doesn't take a Russian intelligence expert to know that the US has been on a long slow march to war on Iran for the past six years, nor does it take a memory expert to remember that Israeli leaders have been urging the US to attack Iran for quite some time now.

Meanwhile, Russia's first deputy prime minister said Wednesday that a war against Iran would lead to a catastrophe.

"The Iranian problem needs to be resolved in a political and diplomatic way, as a threat of war is a road to nowhere, or to a catastrophe," Sergei Ivanov, Russia's former defense minister, said in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Ivanov admitted Tehran's "nuclear dossier" was controversial, but said the nation had the right to pursue civilian nuclear energy. He said uranium enrichment activities should be controlled by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

RIAN reported on the deputy prime minister's remarks here.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, said Monday it had begun producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, and reiterated plans to continue enlarging its nuclear fuel production capacity.

Experts from many other countries believe Iran is bluffing.

How surprising would that be?

"This is a country that routinely lies about conventional weapons developments and production," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Well that makes at least two countries which do that. For this we are prepared to kill hundreds or thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of people?

Or is it about oil?

Or is it about money?

How about power? Bases? A footprint in the Middle East?

Oh no, please move along; there's nothing to see here. We're just rebuilding America's defenses.