Qatar reportedly sought a deal with Iran early in the Middle East war that would see Tehran spare a key Qatari energy complex in exchange for Doha halting gas production.

Such a production halt would be meant to send energy prices soaring, ratcheting up pressure on the US and Israel to end the conflict, according to the Washington Post.

Qatar’s efforts fell apart when Iran on March 18 struck Ras Laffan and other gas fields across the Persian Gulf in response to Israel’s first-ever targeting of a major Iranian gas field, the report said.

The fighting began on February 28, when Israel and the US launched a bombing campaign on Iran in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Iran responded with missile and drone strikes across the region, and by imposing a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which choked off about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and triggered a global spike in energy prices.

The fighting entered a fragile truce on April 8. Qatar, which is friendly with both the US and Iran, has since been involved in mediation between the two countries to bring the war to an end.

Qatar’s appeal to Iran at the start of the war was intercepted by a non-US intelligence service that was monitoring communications of Iranian leaders, according to the Washington Post, which cited regional security officials and........

© The Times of Israel