Iran is under UN sanctions over its failure to halt uranium enrichment, and Washington has refused to rule out a military operation against Iran as a way of forcing its compliance with the demands of the global community, which fears Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.
"Qatar will not participate in any military actions against Iran," the Qatari Al-Raya newspaper quoted Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmad Abdullah Al-Mahmud as saying.
The minister said that all six member-countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf are seeking to maintain friendly relations with Iran, based on geographical proximity, common history and mutual interests.
The Council is a regional trade bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The United States has reportedly been building up its Air Force and Navy contingent near oil-rich Iran, while Russian intelligence experts have even suggested that the U.S. could launch tactical nuclear strikes on the country's underground nuclear sites.
Meanwhile, Russia's first deputy prime minister said Wednesday that a war against Iran would lead to a catastrophe.
"The Iranian problem needs to be resolved in a political and diplomatic way, as a threat of war is a road to nowhere, or to a catastrophe," Sergei Ivanov, Russia's former defense minister, said in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
Ivanov admitted Tehran's "nuclear dossier" was controversial, but said the nation had the right to pursue civilian nuclear energy. He said uranium enrichment activities should be controlled by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, said Monday it had begun producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, and reiterated plans to continue enlarging its nuclear fuel production capacity.
