Qatari airspace closed

[AtomicBlondeRose]

I have friends in Qatar who received shelter in place notices from the US embassy earlier, then repeated by the UK Foreign Office. Schools are shut tomorrow and they’ve just closed the airspace. Pretty worried now.

US naval bases in Bahrain are sounding their sirens.

It's hardly a surprise this has happened. It was almost expected. Iran were never not going to retaliate.

Qatar's govenment has offered its "strong condemnation" of the attack on the al-Udeid Air Base.

Majed al-Ansari, official spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, writes on X: "We consider this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations charter."

He says Qatar's air defence systems "successfully thwarted the attack and intercepted the Iranian missiles" and the base had been evacuated earlier.

He adds: "All necessary steps were taken to ensure the safety of personnel at the base, including Qatari Armed Forces members, friendly forces, and others.
"We confirm that no injuries or human casualties resulted from the attack."

The spokesperson says Qatar reserves the right to respond "in a manner equivalent with the nature and scale of this brazen aggression".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn7ze4vmk2pt

I hope this was done in the know that there would be no casualties cause they knew Qatar would shoot the missiles down, so Iran dont look week and they have retaliated but with the purpose of no casualties

I'm wondering this too. But it's all escalating very rapidly.

It will be sorted out between the Gulf states themselves with the Omanis probably taking the lead in talks to smooth things over.

It will all be ok. It’s just sabre rattling.

I don't see the gulf states going to war with each other.

im hopeful this is it. The gulf states are brought into play and basically force negotiations rather than further scary escalation. But watching the news, it’s hard to see whether this will be what happens or if Trump will red button

I agree and was surprised too when I found out Iran had got Qatar involved.

Seems like another miscalculation if they didn't think Qatar would be angry even if Iran were specifically targeting the US base.

Iran is not an Arab state.
It approximates to what was known as Persia.

My partner thinks this was actually very calculated. So they’re seen as retaliating and in the end they go back to negations because the gulf states demand it and not Trump. This way the retaliation can stop but not under Trumps demands but rather than to keep the peace with their friendly states

Interesting ... my son is saying a similar thing to me now.

I think it depends if Qatar's condemnation was genunine or if it has to obviously say something strong in response. None of their personnel were hurt and there is speculation they were warned. This is the breaking point IMO where things will either get better after this or worst.

I agree, this is the true knife’s edge.

trump will 100% retaliate

I just said to my son, What if Qatar want to get involved in fighting now??

But he said they have very little military strength so he thinks it was just words.

But watching the news, it’s hard to see whether this will be what happens or if Trump will red button

The news outlets want people to be sitting scared and wondering about red buttons. It’s what they’re there for. Just turn your tv off and ignore the scaremongering.

I don’t mean red button as in the big nuke. Red button as in going to war - or retaliating on the greater scale he threatened. Whilst not seeing the bigger picture or understanding the consequences.

my TV is not on.

But it’s an interesting point re trying to make people scared, it all seems such mind games from everyone involved

I agree that not watching or listening to breaking news is a good thing in situations like this. Nothing we can do about it anyway right now.

Having said that, I do keep an eye on updates, but just the one liners in a newsfeed on the phone. I can turn that off if it gets too much!

Let us hope that cool heads prevail.

Qatar won't go to war with Iran. Very very unlikely.

If anything the gulf states may use this to get involved and mediate an end to the war.

Depending on how Trump retaliates.

Well I hope so.

Can I ask why/how was the threat of missiles known about so airspace was closed? Surely Iran want the element of surprise to inflict damage?

I'm not holding out much hope for that one.

Yep