Vatanka Reports
News and Analysis on the Greater Middle East 
 

<p class="font_7" style=""><span style=""><span style=""><span class="color_2">Iran-Qatar relations face unprecedented uncertainty. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad </span></span></span><span class="color_2"><span style=""><span style="">cancelled</span></span></span><span style=""><span style=""><span class="color_2"> a planned trip to Doha in November 2011, and anti-Qatari Iranian rhetoric is at an all-time high. From Tehran’s perspective, Qatar has dangerously raised the stakes by spearheading Arab efforts to remove the Iranian-backed regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus. Still, while Iran strongly resents Qatar’s so-called adventurism in Syria, Tehran’s hands are somewhat tied as it ponders a possible alternative approach towards Doha. The simple fact is that Iran badly wants to maintain whatever entente it still has among Arab countries in an era of Arab-Iranian tension—and the undeniable rise in tensions between Iran and Qatar have to be viewed in this context.</span></span></span></p>

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