By Andrew Mills
DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar’s prime minister has warned that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would “entirely contaminate” the waters of the Gulf and threaten life in Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait.
The three desert states, facing Iran on the opposite side of the Gulf, have minimal natural water reserves and are home to more than 18 million people whose only supply of potable water is desalinated water drawn from the Gulf.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani warned that an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites would leave the Gulf with “no water, no fish, nothing … no life”.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran and has suggested to Tehran that the two countries open talks. Trump has also reinstated a “maximum pressure” campaign that was applied during his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports to zero.
Sheikh Mohammed urged a diplomatic solution to avoid a military strike on Iran that would trigger a “war that will spread all over the region”.
“There is no way that Qatar would support any kind of military step … we will not give up until we see a diplomatic solution,” he said in an interview with U.S. conservative media personality Tucker Carlson that was posted on Friday.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and its supreme leader said on Saturday that Iran would not be bullied into negotiations.
Qatar assessed several years ago that it was at risk of running out of potable water after three days in the event of an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, Sheikh Mohammed said.
The Gulf Arab state, where temperatures reach 50C in the summer, has since built 15 of the world’s largest concrete water reservoirs to boost its emergency water supply.
Qatar’s prime minister specifically mentioned his country, Kuwait and the UAE, and said some of Iran’s nuclear sites were closer to Doha than they were to Tehran. Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant is on the Gulf coast at Bushehr.
Gas-rich Qatar is closely allied with the U.S. and hosts the biggest American military base in the Middle East, but it also maintains ties with Iran, with which it shares the world’s largest known gas field.
During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a deal between Iran and major powers that had placed strict limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
After Trump pulled out in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached and far surpassed those limits.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills; Editing by Alison Williams)
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