2025-08-25
43 分钟This is The Guardian.
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The go-between.
How Qatar became the global capital of diplomacy.
by Nesrin Malik, read by Suleen Hasso.
On the morning of Friday 13th of June,
a few hours after Israel launched a volley of missiles towards Tehran,
one of Donald Trump's first calls was to the Emir of Qatar.
Trump hoped that Sheikh Tamim could persuade the President of Iran,
Massoud Pesachkian, to engage in a negotiated solution.
Pesachkian refused.
Iran would be willing to talk, but would not negotiate under fire.
Over the next few days, during what has since come to be known as the 12-day war,
the Qatari spoke regularly to President Trump and the Iranian leadership.
We were busy, a senior Qatari diplomat told me, with some understatement.
The risks to the region were high, but to Qatar they were existential, he said.
Qatar is a tiny country.
Most of its immense wealth comes from the undersea gas field that it shares with nearby Iran,