Senior Qatari diplomat says “for all intents and purposes, a regional war” has engulfed the Middle East

Qatar | MGN

A senior Qatari official, who has worked for years in the Gulf state’s ministry of foreign affairs, told CBS News on Wednesday that the Middle East has, “for all intents and purposes,” been engulfed in a regional war that governments in the region warned about for years.

Dr. Majed Al-Ansari, an adviser to the Qatari prime minister and the official spokesperson for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CBS News that Gulf states had warned for years that, left unchecked, escalations that first hit Syria, and then Gaza and Lebanon, risked spiraling into something much bigger.

In Doha’s view, that dire prediction has now come true.

“We said very clearly that escalation left unchecked will result in a regional war,” he told CBS News. “What we have right now is, for all intents and purposes, a regional war.”

Iran, he said, has targeted seven Gulf countries since the U.S. and Israel launched their assault on the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28, pulling countries into a war they never wanted to be a part of.

Al-Ansari said Qataris’ reality has been shaken as missile alerts now light up people’s phones overnight and interceptors fly overhead.

“This is now a daily occurrence,” he said. “We are awakened at 4 a.m. by alerts on our phones.”

“I would have never expected for my daughters to live in a situation where missiles would be overhead almost constantly throughout the day,” al-Ansari said.