Transcript of War With Iran? The Prime Minister of Qatar Is Being Attacked in the Media for Wanting to Stop It

Thanks for joining us, Mr. Prime Minister.

Thank you very much.

You had the World Cup a few years ago here. It was very widely covered around the world. Part of the coverage, maybe the majority of the coverage, was not about soccer, football. It was about your country and how it was needed to come into line with the social mores of the West, et cetera. There was a lot of lecturing to your country about the way that you live. Did you feel that?

Well, it's Unfortunately, the whole purpose of hosting the World Cup is to bring the world together in that country, to put the country in the spotlight about the football, about the tournament, and about people coming together. Unfortunately, countries and some NGOs try to use this as an opportunity to attack on values of the society itself, on the values of the country, of the community, by using it as an opportunity to change these values and to impose their own values on our country and our people. That's something was expected from our side that we will be attacked, we will be hearing a lot of lectures about values and things that are not belongs to us. Basically, our decision from the beginning that we don't need to change the country for one month tournament. I cannot change the value of a whole society and impose on them values that I don't believe in. It's against every principle in our society, against the principles of Islam, against the principles of Christianity as well. That's basically, we said very clear, we respect everybody who's coming here as long as they are respecting the laws in that country, as you are expecting from the Qataris when they visit any of your countries in Europe to respect your laws.

Basically, that's what we want from the people. Anything happen in their personal life, it's their personal life. But nothing should happen in public against the laws of the state of Qatar, and we will never change. The problem that those countries and NGOs put a lot of efforts in demonizing this World Cup in order to impose their values Yet, there were many things happening around the world, and they are just turning blind eye. If they put some efforts and energy on those real issues that affecting the human lives around the world, it would be much better than the waste investment that was in campaigns against the country to change its values, to impose new values which are not even related to Why do you think that is?

This used to be called cultural imperialism, taking your values and using force to impose them on another society. But this is probably the richest country per capita in the world. It's free. Qataris can come and go. They don't have to live here. They choose to live here, and your values are thousands of years old. Why would it be important for an NGO? I thought they were supposed to be feeding people, but instead, they're yelling at you for not having enough transgender Qataris. What is the point of that? What What do you think that actually is? What are they trying to do?

Well, I think it's mainly driven by an agenda that these are the things that we would like to see in countries that they are not accepting it. And societies that they are not accepting it. We need to make it normal for them. We need to normalize it. Second, a lot didn't accept the fact that Qatar is a small Arab country, can host a world-class tournament. Basically, they were like, how a lot of attacks that why Qatar won the World Cup? They don't have even the culture of the World Cup. I don't know what does it mean. If I am a country, like a marginal country, I don't have the right to host a World tournament. And this is more about, honestly, I see it more racism and superiority. And that's basically, I think, the main driver for this.

So what an official here told me a funny story, and I want to check to see if it's true. This person told me that some bureau or commission in the United Nations was rating the human rights here in Qatar and said, In order to score higher, you have to build nursing homes for your old people to live. And this person tried to explain, We don't have nursing homes because old people, parents live children. But you built them anyway in order to get a higher score on this, and they remained empty.

Is that true?

Well, it is true, actually. Sometimes when you have international organizations trying to impose certain conditions in order to give you the better status that will make you look good. It requires from you some steps that you will do that. It's not even needed here in this society. Look, Qatar is a very small country. The people here, family matters for us. Parents matters for us. We are in debt to our parents until the last day in their life or in our lives, whatever comes first. If someone will leave his parents alone without taking care of it, he will be publicly by the society. It's not really an acceptable custom or habit in this country to have your elder, to have your parents staying in a senior home. He's The parents are the ones who took care of us when we were children until we grew up to become independent, and we have the duty to take care of them. That's really the genuine the nature of the Qatari society. That's why you end up with something that you don't need. It's not according to your value, it's not according to your religion, but we build it anyway to get the fancy branding.

If you take three steps back, it's like they're mad at you because you don't have enough transgenders. They're mad at you because you don't put your parents in some institution Maybe they're trying to break up your families.

Well, it can be a reason. Honestly, I don't know what is really the purpose behind this, but we see that a lot of things that are happening are attacks on humanity in general. When you lose the family value, when you lose the connection between the family themselves, you will lose the connection between the people as well on a broader level on the people in the same neighborhood, on the people in the same region, in the same countries. And that basically will just make us as individuals who are independent from anyone that That's what we will feel, yet it will just make our societies vulnerable and easy to be penetrated. That's right. And that's, I think, the main issue that we are facing and the main threat that we are facing. You have seen Takar, you spent now a few days in Qatar, and you have seen, you came to my home, and you have seen that my home is surrounded by my family homes. I'm not really living in an isolation from them. I'm You're definitely not. The nuclear family, the bigger family, it's all one community, one family. Basically, you can apply this and magnify it to the entire country.

This is not the case for Muhammad. This is the case for everyone here. People, even when they move temporarily to another neighborhood or to another place 10 minutes away from their family, they feel homesick. We believe that this is supposed to be the case for all the countries where family's bonds matters, family's bonds really create from your society a strong society. That's not easily penetrated. That's what create the national unity as well in face of external threats and everything.

That's the key is that when you are cut off, when you're alone, you are power and you can be controlled. Yeah. You can be penetrated.

You can be penetrated, yes. Very true.

Your country has been in the American media sporadically recently, and it's under attack for reasons I don't fully understand. One of the reasons I wanted to come here was to understand why people are mad at you. I think you've got the biggest overseas US Air Base right near here. So you're clearly a US ally. But I keep reading reference to Qatar as anti-American or pro-Islamist or a threat to the United States somehow. Where do those attacks come from, do you think?

Look, as a country, we always want to do the right things. Basically, the right things, not only for our people, but for our people, for our region, and for our friends. When you are trying to do the right things, sometimes you change your mind when you hear this criticism. But it wasn't really in our culture because we believe that it serves the real cause behind all these efforts is to bring peace. Peace for the people, peace for the region, and peace for our friends. Basically, the peace is the main foundation for us, for our people to prosper. Peace has a lot of enemies, a lot of enemies who wants to undermine it for political reason, who wants to undermine it for economical reason, who wants to demonize your effort in order to make sure that every step you will take will be suspicious in order to control also the parties that you are helping in that. Basically, they don't know by doing such a thing, they are not harming us, but they are harming the region, and they are harming our friends, including the United States. Having an ally and partner and friend like Qatar with the Air Base as one example and working together very closely on a lot of issues, a lot of files, helping bringing Americans homes from different countries, whether it was in the evacuation in Afghanistan, whether it's in American hostages all around the world, mediating in different conflicts.

They basically, if they basically keep criticizing Qatar and attacking Qatar, they think that this is just harming Qatar and Qatar reputation. It's not. It's actually because we always go back to the results. We focus on the outcome and we think about it that that should be our objective and we should focus there and we shouldn't really disturb ourself with any noise. But they don't know that this is harming the US and the US interest at the end of the day.

My sense is that part of the criticism and the confusion from Americans, well, there are, I think two causes. One, you have a Hamas office here. Hamas has been designated, I think, repeatedly by the US government, certainly by the Congress, as a terror organization. People say, Well, how could you Hamas office here. What is that?

We have to go back to the root of this, of this office. Why it's here in the first place? Hamas office, when it was opened here in the first place, it was opened with full transparency and full consultation and actually even request from the US.

The US asked you to put a Hamas office here?

They are actually. They have asked us to open the channels with them to have an established communication channel with the same case what was applied to Taliban as well. Look, at the end of the day, if you have a presence of someone in your country and you are engaging and talking, It doesn't mean that you are endorsing his ideas. It doesn't mean that you are supporting him. The purpose of this office was to facilitate peace, to stabilize the region, and to make sure that always it's serving the purpose. You can go through even everything, all the events that happened in the recent 10 years since the office was officially opened here in Duhal. How many peace deals been brokered from that office through that channel? Many of them. 2014 was the discussion and the negotiations was initiated here and ended in Egypt. In 2018, 2020 and '21, with all those escalations and many of escalations that we avoided to prevent the wars. There are many, plenty of them. You will lose count. Then after seventh of October, the first hostage deal that released the hostages, the women and children, and the foreigners, was 109 hostages.

November 23 happened through that office. Second hostage deal, which we are going through right now, it was produced out of this office. The office is a communication channel, and it doesn't make me feeling shy that I speak with someone whom I have a disagreement with. President Trump spoke with North Korea. He didn't shy out He met with him. He engaged with him. He wants to put an end for the conflict. He wants to make a deal with him. He's a dealmaker, and this country, basically, is blockering deals.

Initially, at the request of the US government. Yes.

It continued like everything that we did, Look, Tucker. But I'm confident that throughout the years that I've been working under the leadership of the Emir. We are sure that every step we are taken, we are very transparent, coordinating with the US, and making sure that we are doing the right thing. So I have nothing wrong that I did that I am shying away from. I know that we have a lot of attacks, and unfortunately, we have attacks from the US, legislation from the Congress many times that although we did it at the request of the government, yet, the Emir always tell me that if we are able to save a single life, it's worth everything. I'll tell you something, we've been under a significant attack in the last 15 months during this war in Gaza. Unbelievable. No one would handle such an attack. We worked tirelessly on achieving this deal. The moment we went out to announce that deal being achieved and we see the celebration in the streets, whether it's in Gaza or in Israel. That moment makes us forget everything.

You've An attack with the US Congress. The core question for me is, if Qatar is an enemy of the United States, why is our airbase here? Have there been calls to remove the airbase?

Well, there are some voices who are unfortunately very much misinformed that this is very critical for the US, for the US security to be here in this region. Actually, the base itself, when it's moved, the first place, it was moved after September 11th to Doha. It was a very risky decision for any country to take it, and we took it. We took it because of the friendship that we have with the US, because of the partnership that we are committing ourselves together with the US. It turned out to be the most important US space outside United States. Basically, it served the security of the United United States, but also it served the stability of this region.

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So the President's envoy in this region and to Ukraine, and globally at this point, is Steve Whitkoff, his friend. Whitkoff, for the record, I think has done a good job. But was attacked in some US media for his connect. He had done business in your country, and he was attacked as a tool of your government.

Well, sometimes when you read the reports about Qatar, you feel that this is a power that controls everyone, and everyone is a tool in the hand of Qatar. Look, this is all a joke. Steve is a respected businessman. He has done business. We didn't do anything wrong with him. We I have done business. I've known him for a long time. I attended his son's wedding. I have a personal relationship, and all this happened before even the election. Before the election taking place, this was, I think, last February, just months before the election. This friendship and relationship, it means that there's a trust between two people, and this trust will, of course, matters for the The working relationship that we have and partnership that US and Qatar has. It benefited the deal at the end of the day. The man traveled all the way. He stayed here. He spent a few days in Doha. He participated with us in the negotiation. He pushed when it was required. He did a great job. As partners, we achieved the deal at the end of the day. The deal wouldn't be achieved without with Qatar single-handedly or with the United States single-handedly.

He needs all of us. All of us are one team and work together. Now, people are attacking him for his relation with Qatar and being a tool in Qatar. If you go back and trace back, those people who are not interested in having a deal, not interested in having... They put their political interests ahead of the interests of even the hostages themselves. How many family in Israel celebrated the return of their loved ones? I'm not going to talk about Ghazza. There's hundreds of thousands of people. They've been fed after a very long war. But just if you look at this and look at the The ones who attacked someone like Steve Whitko, who achieved and succeeded reaching this deal because of his relation with Qatar, is to make sure that the next time, he calculated his steps. But Steve is a great man, straight shooter. It doesn't matter for him as it doesn't matter for us. We are friends. Yes, this is something I feel proud of, that I have many friends in the United States, and those friends might become in certain positions, whether in this administration or in the future administration. It doesn't mean that those friends will be a tool in our hand or Qatar hand.

Basically, the people who are using this, they just The problem that they cannot take it that a small country can get the results. They always have to think about an external factor that bringing them these results. When they look at it as a small country and with this amount of resources, the first thing that will come to their mind, Oh, they are bribing everyone. I'm a country like any other country. I'm operating like any other country. I protect my people's interest, I protect my region interest, I protect my friends. That's what will always continue the same way.

So Trump gets selected in November, inaugurated in January, and immediately, there's a ceasefire, almost immediately with Steve Whitcom, leading the negotiations with your help. But that's coming after years of bloodshed, utterly destabilizing this part of the world, the world itself. Where was the Biden Ministry administration during all of that?

Look, Tucker, what's really making me feel sad that the agreement that we have achieved on 15th of January this year is almost 95% the framework that's been agreed in December and the agreement that's been agreed in March, 24. It took all these months in order to put it in motion. With the previous administration, we were working very closely. The director of CIA is someone that I worked with I respect a lot. We did a lot of work together. The partnership was honestly an exemplary. But at the end of the day, I think it's the calculations of one party over the other. That Why would I do it now? Let me wait. Then President Trump, of course, they know there is no deal happening before the inauguration, as he announced. To my It might have a consequence. I believe that played a role in this.

But the fact is they couldn't get a deal done, and he did.

I think this is... Look, also the way that Steve has managed to represent President Trump was also a very effective way.

One of the criticisms of your country is that you're too close to Iran. I should say you're very physically close to Iran.

Yeah, we are physically close to Iran. How close? It's around 120 miles away.

Right across the water? Yeah.

It's just you can have a boat ride in 90 minutes, you are there.

How would you describe your relationship with Iran, and why do you think you're being criticized for it?

Look, Iran has a lot of problems with the West. We understand that. We acknowledge that. They have problems with the region, It's countries in the region, yes. At the end of the day, Iran is our next door neighbor, and we have to maintain a good relation with all our neighbors. We have a lot of things in common when it comes to the gas field, the largest gas field in the world. It's partnership between us and Iran. It's two-thirds of it in the Qatar Territory, and one-third This is in the Iranian territory.

This is in the Gulf. This is undersea.

Yeah, this is the one in the Gulf Sea. I have to coordinate on environmental issues, for example, the water contaminations. I have to coordinate on security issues like smuggling. I have to have this working relationship with Iran. But also when you think it from a bigger perspective, it's for the interest of the region to have a better relation for everyone in the region with Iran. You have seen that there is a huge progress in the relationship with Iran and the GCE between Iran and the GCC in the last few years. Basically, even the disagreement that we had in certain policies, for example, we worked against each other in Syria for 14 years.

Against Iran.

Against Iran, yeah.

Right, which is backing Hezbollah and Europe.

The same thing in Lebanon. Those differences are, put aside, when it comes to the bilateral, we made the bilateral as a relationship of necessity that we need to have this engagement together all the time. Those disagreements, we talk about them, we try to understand each other's concern, and we try to find a common ground. Basically, that's what we expect from other countries to do when they are around neighbors that some others has disagreements with. You need to engage. Now, this is criticized in the US that we are close to Iran. In terms of what? In terms of policies that has controversies with the US? It's not true. Our policies has been very clear. Our policy is based on principles. Our policy has zero enemies. We have to have friends with everyone. We would like to see peace in our region. We would like to see a peace around the world. If we see innocent people under attack, whatever their backgrounds, we will always help them and we'll support them. These are the things that our policy standing for. If they see me that this is like putting me on a club on the other, they are watching me from thousands of miles away.

They don't know what's happening in this region. They have no knowledge about it. This relationship, it's an important relationship, not for me, for the entire GCC and for the entire GCC stability. Look, Tucker, I think that there is a misunderstanding, or let's say maybe it's more about a legacy issue, that the US needs to take care of the whole world problem. This shouldn't be the case. Each region needs to address their own problems, needs to make sure that this region is stable. The US is the friend and the ally and partner of all the GCC countries. That's how we see the US. So the US expect from us to come to them with vision that this is the way we would like to see the region, and that's the way we are going to work on the region. We would like to have also your support in that direction. That's, I believe, how the relationship should work between us and the US. Not I'm waiting for the US, what's the problem between them and Iran? Then I based my dealing with Iran based on what the US This one. The US is waiting to listen to me what I need from Iran because I am the friend of the US, and Iran is my next door neighbor.

Basically, I think this misunderstanding, or let's say the legacy issue, that's what's driving this whole narrative floating here and there. I think that one day, everything will be resolved diplomatically. If I take a stand against my neighbor because of an external issue, very strong stand. What I'm going to do if those two adversaries come together?

I think it's the policy of your government that you oppose Iran getting nuclear weapons, certainly your neighbors are on the record against it. How close do you think Iran is to getting a nuclear weapon, to building one?

Well, look, actually, the nuclear weapon is bad for the region, for any country, whether it's Iran or any other country. But also, when it comes to developing a nuclear program, there are concerns, of course, whenever any nuclear program is developed around your region. Those concerns can be not only military concerns, but also security and safety concerns. As I mentioned to you, if the water is contaminated, the nuclear facilities of Iran are on the other side of the Coast. It's closer to than Bahrain itself. So the risks and the threats is affecting me, my country, affecting other countries in the GTC more even.

So there's a nuclear site directly across from you. Yeah.

And that's basically, that's why it's putting the entire region in a lot of risk if there is no clear standards for managing those nuclear facilities, and those clear standards ensuring that this is a nuclear power plant that will be used for peaceful use. Now, who's right and who's wrong, this is not for me to judge. Yet, what we would like to see, we would like to see a nuclear program that have components applying with the international standard. We are speaking with the Iranians all the time that we need to work together, we need to work with the IAA in order to ensure that those standards are followed. There are a lot of news and headlines we that Iran is close to a nuclear weapon. This is nothing we have ever heard, we have ever seen, I mean, our experience. Even our engagement with the leaders there, even with the Supreme Leader, He said very clearly that he has issued a fatwa or a declaration that Iran will never go for a nuclear bomb. Basically, this has also its moral status within the country. I hope that we can reach to a solution, a diplomatic solution, where there is prosperity for the region, sanctions are left till nuclear program is peaceful and assurances for the entire region.

This will be, I think, a booster for the region development and prosperity.

There's a great deal of pressure in Washington on the White House in and on the Congress to participate in or sign off on an attack, an aerial bombardment of the Iran nuclear sites, however many there actually are, one of which, as you said, is directly across from you. So you think about this a lot. What would be the consequences if that happens? That's not theoretical, as you know, that could happen soon. What would happen next?

Well, I think it will be a start of a war that will spread all over the region. Basically, do we expect from any country to get attacked and to stay silent? There will be a reaction. Those reactions and retaliations, where it's going to be? Are they going to reach thousands of miles away? They are going to be in the region. Basically, every country in the region are concerned from such a step because it will affect our security, number one. But also for country like If it's the US, it will affect their security as well. They have a big stake in that region, whether it's military basis, whether it's energy facilities in that region. Economic interest. Forget about everything, educational facilities. All those interests will be affected if something God forbid, in that region. Look, there is no way that Qatar with support any military step in that region. We will not give up until we see a diplomatic solution between the US and Iran. This needs to reach to an agreement.

May I ask, just going back a second, you've said that there's the Iranian nuclear facility directly across the water from you. If that were blown up and nuclear material wound up in the water, since it's right on the water, what would happen to the water?

This will be basically entirely contaminated. We have run this exercise of risk in the country. A few years ago, before we built our reservoirs, we had the water that we use for our people is from desalination. We don't have rivers, we don't have water reserves. Basically, the country would run out of water in three days. The whole country? The whole country. Now, After the Reserves, we increased that capacity and we are keep increasing it. But this is not only applied for Qatar. This is applied for Qatar, this is applied for Kuwait, this is applied for UAE. It's all us in that part.

If that nuclear site gets blown up and nuclear material winds up in the water, none of those countries have water?

No water, no fish, nothing. It has no life.

Oh, so that would be a history-changing environmental catastrophe.

It is an environmental catastrophe. That's why I'm telling you that's the When you look at the position of Qatar in the map and the region with Iran, a lot of people, they don't even understand it. I remember once I went to visit the US Congress, and I was meeting with one US Senator. We were talking discussing about Iran. He said, Basically, you don't have to deal with them. I drew for him a map on his desk. For the first time, he realized that these two countries are that close to each other. There are a lot who doesn't see this region as close to Iran and it's too intertwined.

So they don't have maps in the Senate?

No, they do have maps, but probably they don't know how to spot Qatar. We are very small.

Do you think... I mean, to the extent you can say, I should say you're the Prime Minister, but you're also the Foreign Minister, so this is what you do all day, every day. But to the extent you can say, do you think that the Iranian government is willing to de-escalate through negotiation, open up its nuclear sites to international inspection of some kind, reassure the world they're not two weeks away from getting a bomb as we read directly every day on the internet, whether it's true or not? Do you think that's achievable?

Well, I think it is achievable. Actually, all the engagement that we had with the Iranian officials, as I mentioned to you, we were just there a few days ago, actually, and engaging with the President, engaging with the Supreme Leader, with the Foreign Minister over there in order to find a diplomatic solution. Basically, they are willing to engage. They are willing to get to a level that create comforts for everybody. Most importantly, they are focused on mending their relationship with the region. That's something in itself. It can create a lot of progress in every front with Iran. So I believe there is an opportunity. Now, we come back to the question, the chicken and the egg, which come First, I believe we should forget about these questions and get the parties together, start to understand each other's concerns. Basically, if everything is complying with the international standards, I don't see any reason why we don't have a deal.

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We hope you enjoy it. There's talk of the United States of increasing sanctions on Iran. I didn't know that was possible, but Iran has been under some form of sanctions for almost 50 years, 46 years, I think. Have they achieved their intended goal? And bigger picture, have you ever seen sanctions against anybody achieve their intended goal?

Look, this issue is very controversial. First, As a principle for my country, for state of Qatar, we see unilateral sanctions are unaffected, and it's punishment of punishing the people, not punishing a country or a regime. That's number one.

They still have the revolutionary government from 1979 in power, right? Yeah.

I mean, if it would lead to a result, we wouldn't be in that situation until now. Fidel Castro died in Havana after 50 years of US sanctions. Just going back, sanctions, what does it create? Pressures the people, it bothers them. It creates black markets, it creates a whole illegal system. If the sanctions are coming out of the US, it actually preventing to prevent all the US interest or companies to have business and lose the opportunities for other countries. I don't see a world where the sanctions work. Honestly, for us, as I told you, it's a core principle in our foreign policy. We refuse. We don't support sanctions at all. Sanctioning countries, I'm talking about. Sanctioning countries is just making the situation much worse.

Well, can I just ask, so three of the biggest oil-producing countries in the world, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, have been under the most extensive sanctions in history. Yes. They're still selling oil, though. Oh, yeah. Like a lot of oil.

Yeah, much. I think it's mainly it's sold in different means, in different currencies. And looked I recall when the Russian sanction came out at the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, I had an interview in one of the US media channels, I said very clearly that sanctions will only create a parallel marketplace for other currencies. The dollar dominated international currency, you will start to see countries moving away from that by the time. It won't benefit. It won't benefit. It won't get you what you want. It's the contrary. That's basically what's been at the end. Any country like Venezuela, for example, or Iran, they need to survive. They need to feed their people. They need to get at least the basic requirements that they want. They will find ways to sell their oils. They will find ways to use other currencies. They will find markets who will accept them and selling them and buying from them. That's basically you created a parallel market. That's what I've been saying.

You cut out US countries, you weaken the US dollar, you make the country more repressive inevitably, but you don't dislodge the leadership, whether it's Putin, Chávez Moundou, the Eytolas in Iran, Fidel Castro, and you don't prevent them from selling their oil in international markets. Why exactly would you levy sanctions?

Honestly, I look from at least my humble experience looking at all those sanctioned countries. In the last, let's say, I always like to talk about my tenure in diplomacy, which is 10 years. In the last 10 years, I've seen a lot of sanctions floating around on a lot of countries. None of these sanctions has achieved the results that's intended for.

I think that's true. It's not an ideological point. That's factually true, right?

It is factually true, yeah.

Why Why are we just doing it?

Just if you go and name a single country that has a regime change or an entire behavior change to the good Because of sanction, you will not find any.

Okay, so, again, I don't think what you're saying should be controversial because it's proofable. Go to Wikipedia. Yeah. So Why? I think this morning I was reading, We're going to sanction this person more. There's got to be some reason that the US Congress and various administrations have continued to want to do this, even though there's absolute proof that it doesn't work? What would be the reason to do it?

Well, look, as I told you, I don't know, honestly, we can ask this question more for US legislator and policymakers, but I think from my perspective, this is when you have... If you don't talk to the other party, if you don't want to use military, which is something that we never advise for, the only tool will remain in your hand is sanction to show power and to show leverage, which some people, they think that this is leverage and power, which is not.

It doesn't seem to be. No. Power It's, of course, measurable, right?

Actually, look, just if you go through every sanction countries, it never achieved the objective. That's what I want to see.

Yeah, I think that's true. How does the Ukraine war end, do you think?

Well, look, there is a lesson that history taught us that there is no war started with one of the parties wants the war. Always two parties, they don't want the war, and they end up in a war. There is no war ended without a negotiation around the negotiation table to find a peaceful solution, despite how long it took. This war will end at the end of the day around the negotiations. Now, if you look at the recent efforts that President Trump is doing together with the Kingdom of Saudi, I believe this is the right direction, the right path forward because we were like... When the war started as a state of Qatar, we always express our willingness to help, to support if there is any chance for mediation. We looked at it, it's something far away, it's in Europe. Yet we have some experience in mediation, which is a track record that we have built throughout the year. We saw that this conflict is too complicated. We tried to break it down to smaller mediation efforts, and we were working on the children file, for example, Russian and Ukrainian children, bringing them back to their families.

We were working on the energy file, but unfortunately, Unfortunately, it didn't work out in order to build a foundation for someone like President Trump to come and to broker a peace deal. I believe it is the moment. I believe that the steps that's being taken are the right steps. Basically, the way it ends, it should be the way that it addresses both countries' concerns. I think that the Ukrainians has legitimate concerns that they need to address, and the Russians has legitimate concerns that the Ukrainians needs to address. I believe this will never reach a solution unless there is some direct talks between them and also some demonstration of support from the partners of both Ukraine and Russia that they need to put an end for this and they need to understand each other's concern, and they need to take them into consideration. The partner's role is to give them the assurances and the comfort that those considerations will be taken seriously.

I hate to say it, but I think Russia's partners are probably willing to express support for a settlement. I don't know if Ukraine's are, and that would be Europe, Great Britain and Western Europe. You just saw the Prime Minister of Britain say the the other day, we're going to send British troops to Ukraine.

At the end of the day, as I told you, it's an issue between Russia and Ukraine, and they need to address it themselves. They need to get the assurances that both countries need. I think that even within the EU, not everyone is sharing the same opinion, I believe. But at the end of the day, they will come They will come down to a conclusion that this issue needs to be settled peacefully, and this issue needs to take into consideration everyone's concern.

You participated in a successful ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. Who knows if that lasts. I don't know when this is going to air, so I don't even want to speculate. But clearly, it's been awful for everybody. It's certainly been awful for Gaza. It's been awful for its neighbors. I think it's been really bad for Israel. It's just hard to see an upside. How would you, if you were in charge, fix this 80-year-old conflict for good?

It's going back to the basics. If you look at the history since Madrid Declaration in the '90s, where Israel needed to be integrated in the region, economic normalization should happen between the countries in the region, and a political horizon for the Palestinians to establish their own state on the borders of 1967, which is according to the Security Council Resolutions. Since that time, until today, we We didn't see anything, but the situation is going backward. More settlements, more violence, more policies which are destructive for the Palestinians, unfortunately. Basically, we are expecting from the Palestinians just to obey, to stay quiet, and there will never be anything instigated. This is normal when you have a situation that's lasting that long, to have this turbulence all the time. I'm not talking here about seventh of October, I'm talking about the entire period. How many wars we had? We had a lot of them. A lot of people, we hear them saying that we need to try something new. We need to try things that we are not even thinking about. Yes, we agree. The two-state solution. We've been talking about we never tried this. Have we ever That's what we have tried it and didn't work?

Does this country that's established next to Israel will be a threat for Israel? It's a threat as long as it's not a country. We said that we are willing to provide security guarantees for Israel. All of us, we will be integrated together as one region and demilitarized Palestinian state, even. It's not even a fully independent-Not even a real country.

It's demilitarized.

It's basically everything you are offering. In exchange, we will always either because of their political situation in Israel. We were always faced by rejections. There were just few leaders in Israel who had the courage to come out and to say that this is the only solution. This is the only way forward. But in the last few years, we didn't see any of them.

Do you think Donald Trump can force a Palestinian state?

I think, look, President Trump, he's a great dealmaker. He's a great businessman. He's very successful. He made, brokered many deals around the world during the first administration. I believe if we will have peace one day, this is the best opportunity for us with someone like President Trump.

Is Qatar at net zero? I know there was some enthusiasm on making sure you got to net zero.

Well, if you see the largest export supporter of LNG at Net Zero, I think there is something happening wrong. Does that mean you're dead if you're at Net Zero? We are committed, first of all, that...

Wait, aren't you supposed to pretend you're getting to net zero?

Look, I'm not going to pretend anything that I'm not going to do, but the gas has proven that it is the most important reliable base load source of energy for the next century, maybe. The gas is much cleaner than a lot of other energy resources. It's benefiting the environment government, benefiting a lot of countries, switching from coal to gas. That's what we are producing, that's what we are focusing on. Now, countries who were just rushing to get to net zero and trying to impose some green policies that are not realistic, they are attracting from those policies now. You see them like, some of them, they are going back to coal.

Well, they're also on the verge of revolution in some cases because they destroy the lives of their people.

Basically, also, it's not fair when you try to impose these regulations in countries that they have their resources not being developed, not being exploited, and they have no electricity even, like Africa, for example. You want to make sure that no, everything there is green, everything to reach net zero, and you are not allowed to come and to exploit your energy. But I don't have electricity. The whole concept, I think it's... Right now, there is a lot of debate, there is a lot of argument about it, and I'm not sure if the world will be able to achieve it. We understand the danger of the climate. We understand the danger of the climate change, but it doesn't mean that we shoot ourselves on the foot. We need to think about it wisely. We need to think about it gradually. Look, Tucker, honestly, maybe I told you in a separate meeting that the pyramid of the needs of the people, first security, then food and water, then health, energy, education, strong economy, and then climate change and the environment. We are living in a region that barely handling the three layers of foundation. People coming and trying to impose on the tip of that, we need to make sure that our neighbors, our surrounding are secured.

We need to ensure that they are fed. We need to ensure that they have enough health care. We need to ensure that they have a good education. We need to make sure that they have energy. I have access to energy in the first place.

Time for another true life ALP story. I got a call from a friend of mine yesterday, honestly, true story, who said his girlfriend had just broken up with him over ALP. He wouldn't stop. I thought to myself, That's sad. He said, No, it's not sad. Now, imagine if I'd married her. Now I know I was saved. Then the next day, this same friend is driving at twice a speed limit through a major American city, pulled over by a cop in a speed trap. The cop takes his license registration, goes back to the patrol car, runs him, comes back, looks in the window, and sees a tin of ALP on the dashboard, pauses, stunned, says to my friend, You use ALP? Yeah, I do, says my friend. So do I, says the cop. We all do. He looks at my friend thoughtfully and goes, Drive safely, sir, and hands back his since his registration. No ticket. In two days, he's saved from a tragic marriage to a girl who doesn't like ALP and a speeding ticket. All true. It's more than a nicotine marriage. In an age of 350 million people are guessing there are about 350 million ALP stories.

Email us yours. We want to know and read it on the air. Email tellall@alppouch. Com. Tellall@alppouch. Com. Give us your ALP story.

It does seem like things have changed just in the past six months, partly because of the electricity needs of AI, of EVs, all the stuff baked in the cake, the clear limits of renewables, like they can't actually run a modern society. That's all obvious now. And so a lot of investment funds and politicians have pulled back from the net zero theology. But what's amazing to me is that it seems like some of them really believed it. In the case of Qatar, you were opening up a new gas field, and I think some, even energy people laughed at you and said there's no future for gas.

Yeah.

Well, look- Why did they say that? This actually happened to us twice. Once when we started the gas exploitation, it wasn't yet the future of the energy at At that time, this was back in the early '90s, and we took the risk. Qatar was in totally different economic situation at that time. We took a great risk. We put a lot of pressure on the country and the needs of the country. Apparently, the LNG picked up and became one of the main sources. Then, at the peak of the Net Zero and the Green Agenda, we announced the expansion of our production, which was back in 2018, and we decided to go and to invest. At that time, you can read reports from the IMF, for example, that a lot of countries will end up with a lot of oil and gas, but with no money because they will have no countries to sell the gas to or They will have no markets to sell their oil to. This was just in 2018, and everyone was panicked. In the same year, we have announced that we are going to expand our gas field, production production, and we are hoping to double it by 2030.

From 77 million cubic ton, which was peaked in 2011 and continued being sustained until today, by 2030, we will reach 144. That's basically will be the biggest.

There was a projection in 2018 that no one would want to buy your natural gas.

After 2050.

Who made that? I mean, that's like-That's IMF report, actually.

It's not a projection for Qatar, but it was for the entire GCC.

That's so far out of whack with observable reality. That's insane, obviously.

It wasn't. We had the debate about this within our government at that time, and we didn't believe it. We have seen that the requirement for the energy will just increase. We were watching the revolution in a lot of technologies, and we have seen that whether it's the green hydrogen, the blue hydrogen, the renewables, all of them, they cannot never be cost-effective in the next 10, 15 years. And maybe more. They will not be enough. The baseload, you will always need an energy mix, and the baseload of this mix will be the LNG will remain always the gas.

That was obvious to just interested non-experts like me or just people who read about it on the side. But the IMF researchers and energy analysts who came up with this projection, do you think they really believed it?

Well, I don't know, honestly. We were At the beginning, when we have seen these reports, we were just questioning why they are doing that. But it was part of the global sustainability agenda, and probably this is an idea that all international organizations agreed to promote. Basically, it's the same thing when it comes to those organizations, you always see a common agenda item that everyone is advocating to the same direction. Look, So they're lying to you in order to keep you from exploiting energy. We have nothing against the green and the climate change. It's something that all of us we need for our survival, for our planet, yes. But also we need to be realistic in our approach. We need to make sure that this progress is not harming us. It's benefiting us. It's not because we want to make sure that the planet lasts forever, that our people doesn't last I'm not sure. I mean, it's basically, it's really a miscalculation. Now, another example I want to give you, for example, in our partnership with the US in the gas area, we have During the time before the fracking and the shell gas in the US, we were supplying the US with LNG at a certain point of time, and we built this, what's so called Golden Pass in Texas in order to be a receiving terminal for the gas.

During President Trump time in the first administration, we signed with him, we signed during his administration to make it as a sending terminal So all the gas, the US gas, will be exported through that terminal, which is a partnership between Qatar Energy and ExxonMobil.

To explain, you take natural gas out of the ground. It's often found with oil. But then you have to basically freeze it and make it to convert it to a liquid state in order to ship it across the ocean. So LNG is liquefied natural gas.

That's what you're talking about. Liquefied natural gas, yes. And then you have also, besides that, during the same meeting during the previous administration with the President Trump, the first one, we have signed the single largest petrochemical plant in the world. It's called the Golden Triangle, which hopefully will be online very soon. That's what will provide the basic feedstock for all the industries in the United States, which is the polymers. This is also a partnership between Qatar Energy and US company. Super.

I mean, looking back, I think we can be a little bit more critical and try to understand what the green agenda was or Net Zero was. But no one ever explained without natural gas, how are you going to get fertilizer and plastic? Did anyone ever explain that to you?

No, they have no answers. Even people who are adopting the green agenda when they are talking about electricity, for example, generating electricity from green energy, green resources. Those electricity will need batteries. Batteries will need lithiums for the EVs. This lithium, when you mine those lithium, what is the effect on the environment?

Oh, I know.

When if you calculate it, it's much worse for the planet and for the land than the oil and the gas combined, and maybe from the coal as well. It wasn't really well thought of. It was something that I believe was taken to a direction, doesn't serve the interest of the entire world.

Does it make you nervous that the smartest, most powerful people in the world could jump to conclusions they didn't think through without evidence, that they could just say something was true without knowing it was true and thinking through the consequences? I It seems like a mass insanity that took over the world.

It keeps us up all night. It does. Me too.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Doug. I appreciate it. Thank you.

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