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Qatar stated on Tuesday that Iranian attacks targeted not only military sites but the country's entire territory, including a failed attempt to strike Hamad International Airport, as nearly 800 people have been killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and the conflict's reach expanded across Gulf capitals and beyond.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari stated that Iranian targets were "not just military but all of Qatar's territory," adding that attempts to attack Hamad International Airport had failed.
Ansari disclosed that Iranian jets shot down on Monday had entered Qatari airspace despite being warned and were heading for Doha before they were targeted.
"Qatar is still searching for its crews," he said.
"Qatar was not notified by Iran of incoming missile attacks," Ansari said, adding, "there is no ongoing communication with Tehran."
He pushed back against the notion that pressuring Gulf countries would force a return to negotiations. "The claim that pressuring Gulf countries would lead to a return to negotiations is false," he noted.
Ansari confirmed Qatar's stockpile of interceptor missiles had not run out. "We have enough to deal with the ongoing threat," he said, adding that the country remained "fully prepared" and that "such attacks will not go unanswered."
Qatar also noted that nearly 8,000 people were stranded in transit in the country, with airspace remaining closed.
When asked about claims by U.S. broadcaster Tucker Carlson that Qatar and Saudi Arabia had arrested individuals linked to Mossad, Ansari said there was no information on Mossad cells operating in the country at this time.
U.S. political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had apprehended and "arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries."
"Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?" Carlson said on his show.
"Aren’t they on the same side?" he added, noting that, "Israel wants to hurt Iran - and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait."
Nearly 800 people have been killed in U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran since Saturday, according to Iranian figures, a sharp increase from the 555 reported a day earlier.
Addressing reporters at a primary school hit in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the war "was not initiated by Iran, whose choice was diplomacy."
"We have vowed to fight with all our strength in this battle," Baqaei said, adding that the war would end "when the aggression stops."
Baqaei called on the U.N. Security Council and the international community to intervene "before the war expands to other places." He warned that if the world did not act, "the fire of lawlessness and rebellion will engulf all countries."
Drones struck the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday, with Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporters in the Saudi capital seeing smoke damage on the walls and roof of the building.
Saudi police were swarming the diplomatic quarter, checking IDs and blocking several roads, including those to the embassy. The Saudi foreign ministry described the attack as "heinous and unjustified."
Trump warned that strikes could continue for weeks or months. "From the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that," Trump said at the White House.
In an earlier interview with the New York Post, Trump refused to rule out deploying U.S. ground troops to Iran "if they were necessary." Speaking to NewsNation, he warned Iran would "find out soon" how he planned to retaliate for the Riyadh embassy attack.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said he was "deeply shocked" by the war's toll on civilians.
The United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several top leaders.
Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks across the region, striking U.S. military assets and energy facilities in at least eight countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.
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