Iran’s president heads for Qatar as Iran's army trains with Oman - analysis

The Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian is heading to Qatar on Wednesday, Iranian state media reported. The president recently returned from New York where a large Iranian delegation took part in the UN General Assembly. Pezeshkian recently met Russia’s Prime Minister this week.

It is clear that the Iranian president appears to be keeping up a brisk pace of international meetings. This is important for Iran because Iran is trying to shore up diplomatic ties even as its proxies continue to wage an unrelenting war of attrition on Israel.

Pezeshkian is heading to Doha on Wednesday wherehe will meet the Emir of Qatar and  participate in the 19th Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Summit. “Pezeshkian’s two-day trip will take place at the official invitation of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar. The president will also participate in a meeting of high-ranking Iranian and Qatari delegations and the signing ceremony of cooperation documents,” Iran’s state media reported.

Qatar hosts Hamas leaders, and Doha has been increasingly hostile to Israel, slamming it at the UN and also slamming the recent ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The US and the West have looked to Doha to broker a Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal.

However, it appears that this deal is a long shot now, and Doha's overall role is now more negative than in the past. Iran’s work to create warmer ties with Qatar is part of the trend in the region where Iran works with Turkey, Russia, China, and other groups against Israel. 

The Iranian leader is also taking part in the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) which was first inaugurated in June 2002 in Cha-Am, Thailand, and included 18 delegations. “The ACD is a continent-wide forum, the first of its kind in Asia. More specifically, the ACD aims to constitute the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian Community without duplicating other organizations or creating a bloc against others,” Iran’s IRNA notes. Iran is also part of other economic groups such as BRICS and the SCO, as it works to become closer to China and Russia.

The Iranian leader’s trip to Qatar comes amid another important development. Iranian state media reported that for the first time Iranian ground forces are conducting joint military training with the Sultanate of Oman. The training began this week. According to the reports this exercise is called the Mountain Falcons 1 (Saqour al-Jabal 1) and it began on Monday in Jebel Al-Khader province of Oman.

“This exercise is being held with the participation of the ground force of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army and the ground force of Sultanate of Oman army, as well as the support of the Air Force and the Royal Oman Police, with the aim of sharing experiences, joint combat training and improving the level of combat and operational readiness,” IRNA reported. 

Iran has increasingly close ties with Oman. Oman is an important state because it has often been viewed as neutral in many of the issues in the region. For instance in 2018 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman. In recent years Oman has appeared to grow closer to Iran. During the Gulf crisis when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and other states cut ties with Qatar, Oman remained outside of the crisis. Oman also has traditional ties with countries across the Indian Ocean. It is also important because it is close to Yemen.

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have been targeting shipping and creating havoc in the Red Sea, as well as targeting Israel. Oman is generally considered a peaceful and safe, stable country in the region. Its joint training with Iran raises some eyebrows. However, the Iranian ground forces are not the same as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and are seen as a less ideological part of Iran’s security forces. As such the training can be seen through the light of Iran’s influence operations in the Gulf and its desire to project security in the region. For Iran “security” also means destabilization in some arenas, but not necessarily in Oman.