How Qatar Helped Broker the Israel-Iran Cease-Fire

Before midnight on Monday, Qatari officials convened a group of journalists in a purple meeting room to protest a missile barrage from Iran that targeted a large U.S. military installation in the desert outside the Qatari capital, Doha.

Majed al-Ansari, the foreign ministry spokesman, declared that his country had the right to respond to the attack a few hours earlier. At the same time, he called for de-escalating the new war between Israel and Iran and for cease-fire negotiations.

But it seems that Qatar had already begun to help to broker a truce, engaging quietly with Israel’s American allies and with the Iranian government behind the scenes.

“What happened shows Qatar can take a hit but be pragmatic,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House.

After the United States intervened on the side of Israel and bombed Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, Iran responded by attacking the Al Udeid aid base in Qatar.

If the Iranian government was set on targeting American soldiers in the Gulf, it may have viewed the base in Qatar as less likely to provoke an escalation or damage its relations with some other Gulf Arab countries, which had been warming in recent years.

The wealthy emirate of Qatar has generally maintained closer ties with Iran than most of the other Gulf countries. It has also played a leading role in mediating between Israel and Hamas, the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

If Iran attacked another Gulf nation, it might have run into more complicated territory.

The headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia’s oil installations could also have become targets. But Iran’s diplomatic relations with these two other Gulf nations are still new and relatively shaky.

The United Arab Emirates is one of Iran’s largest trading partners, offering Iran a vital link to the global economy as it navigates longstanding Western sanctions. The prospect of missiles flying over Dubai, a glitzy metropolis in the Emirates, would have alienated a neighbor that Iran depends on.

Qatari officials intervened with Iran on behalf of the Trump administration, according to three diplomats briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. They said that Mr. Trump had told the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, that Israel had signed off on an American cease-fire proposal.

The president had asked Qatar to help bring Iran on board, the diplomats said. The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, then persuaded Iran to agree to the truce proposal by late Monday in a call with the Iranian leadership, the diplomats said.

A senior White House official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly, said the Qatari emir played a role in the cease-fire discussions.

The truce took effect early Tuesday morning and appeared to be holding as evening approached.