Qatar PM Warns Of Attacks On Iran's Nuclear Facilities To Pollute Water Supply In Teluk

JAKARTA - Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani warned that the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would "completely pollute" Gulf waters, threatening life in Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait.

Three desert countries, which deal with 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 drinking water is desalination water taken from the Gulf.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani warned that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would leave the Gulf "without water, no fish, nothing, nothing life".

Sheikh Mohammed urged a diplomatic solution to avoid a military offensive against Iran that would trigger a "war that would spread throughout the region".

"There is no way Qatar will support any kind of military move, we will not give up until we see a diplomatic solution," he said in an interview with US conservative media figure Tucker Carlson which was posted on Friday.

United States President Donald Trump said he wanted to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran and had advised Tehran that the two countries open talks.

President Trump has also reimposed the "maximum pressure" campaign implemented during his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and push its oil exports to zero.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday Iran would not be intimidated for negotiations.

Qatar assessed that a few years ago, they were at risk of running out of drinking water after three days in the event of an attack on Iran's nuclear site, Sheikh Mohammed said.

The Gulf Arab state, whose temperature reaches 50C in the summer, has since built the world's 15 largest concrete water reservoirs to increase its emergency water supply.

The Prime Minister of Qatar specifically said his countries, Kuwait and the UAE, said several Iranian nuclear sites were closer to Doha than to Tehran. Iran's only nuclear power plant operating is on the coast of the Gulf in Bushehr.

The gas-rich Qatar is closely allied with the US and hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East, but is also in a relationship with Iran, which shares the world's largest gas field.

During his first term of office for the 2017-2021 period, Trump withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and major countries that had set strict limits on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

After Trump withdrew in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, Iran violated and went far beyond those limits.