Qatar against West’s anti-Iran provocations

Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has announced his country’s opposition to efforts by certain Western countries to provoke regional countries into taking anti-Iran stance.

“I have always told the officials of western countries that they can use the role of big Islamic states such as Iran in providing peace and security in the region,” al-Thani said.

The Qatari Emir made the remarks in Doha on Wednesday during a meeting with Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, the adviser to the Iranian president and head of the presidential office.

This comes amid reports that US President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of new warships and patriot systems to the Persian Gulf.

Earlier, unidentified US military officials told AP that Washington has taken discrete steps to increase its patriot missile capabilities in the territory of some of its allies in the Persian Gulf.

Arab states have a long history of housing US military bases and combat equipment. Kuwait plays host to US Patriots, while the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters.

Qatar is also known to have a modern US air operations center that has played a central role in the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Al-Thani noted that his country will take an independent stance on its ties with Iran.