Iran War to "Bring Down Economies of the World," says Qatar Minister

Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could “bring down the economies of the world,” predicting a widespread shutdown of Gulf energy exports that could send oil to $150 a barrel, Jon Gambrell, David Rising, Sam Metz and Sally Abou Aljud reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The fighting has brought up the price for a barrel of benchmark US crude to above $90 for the first time in more than two years, and has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon, and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. (Photo: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan) 

The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude rose above $90 on Friday for the first time in more than two years.

Writing for the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera, a regional analyst warned Iran was making “a strategic miscalculation of historic proportions.” Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite network owned and funded by Qatar’s government, has often been used to signal Doha’s views on regional matters.

Sultan al-Khulaifi, a senior researcher at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, wrote: “By spreading the conflict to the Gulf, Tehran is doing precisely what Israel could not do alone: steering the war away from the Israeli-Iranian axis and transforming it into a confrontation between Iran and its Arab neighbors.”

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s defense minister and Pakistan’s army chief met to discuss ways to stop attacks coming from Iran, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman spoke with Field Marshal Asim Munir in Riyadh about the Iranian attacks.

Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact that defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both.

In a related development, US officials claimed Russia is providing valuable intelligence to Iran, blaming Moscow for ambushes of covert US units operating in Iran and the bombing of radar arrays and equipment that monitor Iranian communications.

The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon, and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.