Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani went to Qatar to meet with Qatar’s prime minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, a significant move for Iran’s regional influence.
Doha is a friend of Tehran, which in turn goes to Qatar to meet with Hamas leaders residing there. Hamas and Iran are continuing to exploit the October 7 attack to gain more influence in the region and seek to isolate Israel, as Qatar is a major non-NATO ally of the US.
Iran seeks to build up its alliance system
Kani is working at a fast pace in the region to shore up Iran’s alliance system. He has been holding numerous meetings and seeking to pick up where his predecessor left off after his predecessor, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran last month.
Iran and Qatar have excellent relations, the diplomats said, according to Iran’s IRNA government media. “Kani said that all potential should be used to halt the Israeli genocide in Gaza and support the oppressed Palestinians. He went on to say that the Islamic Republic will undoubtedly follow its policy on strengthening ties with neighbors in line with the priority set by late president Ebrahim Raisi,” the report reads.
The Qataris said they hoped that Tehran and Doha could boost cooperation: “The Qatari minister also touched on Gaza and said the situation there remained critical, then he called for continuation of consultations between Doha and Tehran to help ensure regional stability and security,” IRNA reported.
Kani put out a statement on Tuesday praising Amir-Abdollahian for the role he played in the region and the “art of diplomacy” he used. “The fact that resistance at the regional level became a norm in regional relations was the art of Iranian diplomacy, which was able to institutionalize it in the regional atmosphere and international relations,” Kani said, according to IRNA.
This shows how much Iran’s foreign policy has knitted together an alliance of proxies in the region. Kani has appeared to work more closely with the IRGC so that the two purveyors of Iran’s arms in the region now work together on policies. The IRGC has historically played a major role in backing groups like Hezbollah, the Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria. It is also viewed as a terrorist group by the US and Canada.