It was a Monday night that seemed to have reached the point of no return. But the dramatic hours that followed saw the picture being flipped. What emerged was a series of well-coordinated moves that has possibly — in fact, very possibly — pulled the Middle East back from the brink.
It began when Iran launched six missiles at the US air base in Qatar. Iran confirmed the attack and went on to justify it by underlining that they had launched the same number of missiles that the US had hit them with.
With airspace in Qatar having been shut down ahead of the attack and news of airspace in Bahrain and the UAE being closed, it seemed like a full-fledged war — with the US joining in — was set to be unleashed.
Qatar, in its response, according to early reports was said to have strongly condemned the attack and stressed that it reserves the right to respond.
But then it emerged from their full statement that they had also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in their response. Iran, too, issued a statement that their attack was not against "brotherly Qatar".
There was news by now that all missiles had been brought down and there were no casualties.
In between came the news in the New York Times that Qatar had been warned in advance of the attack.
How did the New York Times get to know this was the immediate question. Did it mean that the Americans had been told and the New York Times had been tapping their sources in the White House? Stood to reason, did that not?
Interestingly, an expert on the BBC drew attention to what was happening to the price of crude oil in the aftermath of the attack. It was falling, a "counter-intuitive" movement as she called it.
Soon, further interesting observations emerged.
The target Iran had chosen to unload their six missiles on was an interesting one.
The Al Udeid Air Base is in southwestern Doha and located away from civilian centres and from key Qatari infrastructure. There are now multiple reports that the air bases were "allowed to be vacated in advance".
"Considering how short a distance the missiles had to travel from Iran, it now seems like both the US and Qatar had been given ample time to prepare and close the airspace to civilian aircraft and evacuate the base," Daniel Levy, ex-Israeli peacemaker who knows the region well, told The New Indian Express.
A little while later, a US official confirmed that the Americans had been informed hours in advance.
The belief that Iran had been allowed this face-saver through back-channel diplomacy now began to take hold.
Further proof to support this theory came from Donald Trump's first post on Truth Social after the Iranian strikes.
The US President chose not to focus on what had happened in Qatar, and instead emphasised: "The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it. Only the Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible — And even they say they were “pretty well destroyed!” Working especially hard on this falsehood is Allison Cooper of Fake News CNN, Dumb Brian L. Roberts, Chairman of “Con”cast, Jonny Karl of ABC Fake News, and always, the Losers of, again, Concast’s NBC Fake News. It never ends with the sleazebags in the Media, and that’s why their Ratings are at an ALL TIME LOW — ZERO CREDIBILITY!"
What was that we were discussing about face-saving exits earlier?
So, was it down to a question of whether Israel will also play ball?
As that was being pondered, a Reuters report of Israel "looking to wrap up its campaign in Iran soon and has passed the message on to the United States" emerged.
Are the war clouds then clearing up and is peace finally in the offing?
If any doubts remained, a series of Truth Social posts from Trump cleared them shortly after the first draft of this article went live.
Of Iran, he posted: "...They've gotten it all out of their "system," and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE. I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured."
When it came to Qatar, he had this to say: "I'd like to thank the Highly Respected Emir of Qatar for all that he has done in seeking Peace for the Region. Regarding the attack today at the American Base in Qatar, I am pleased to report that, in addition to no Americans being killed or wounded, very importantly, there have also been no Qataris killed or wounded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Very revelatory that and leaving little to the imagination.
Finally, for the rest of us, there was this: "CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE!"
The time had arrived for Trumpian relief to set in!
