Global economies will be hit if the war against Iran continues for weeks, according to Qatar’s energy minister.
Posted on March 6, 2026
Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi has said exports from the Gulf region could stop “within weeks” if the war with Iran continues to escalate, causing turbulence in global energy markets.
Al-Kaabi told The Financial Times (FT) newspaper in an interview published on Friday that if the war continues for weeks, “GDP growth around the world will be affected.”
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“The price of energy for everyone is going to rise. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that will not be able to supply,” al-Kaabi said.
Qatar halted liquefied natural gas (LNG) production on Monday as Iran fired a barrage of missiles and drones at the country and its Gulf neighbors in response to attacks by the United States and Israel, which began on Saturday.
Iranian attacks have increasingly targeted energy infrastructure, causing gas prices to spike and raising alarm around the world.
Qatar’s LNG production is equivalent to around 20 percent of global supply and plays a key role in balancing demand for the product in Asian and European markets.
“We hope that everyone who has not requested force majeure will do so in the coming days while this continues,” al-Kaabi told the Financial Times, referring to a provision that frees companies from liability or obligations in the event of extraordinary events.
“All exporters in the Gulf region will have to declare force majeure,” he said.
The minister also said that even if the war ended immediately, it would take “weeks or months” for Qatar to return to a normal delivery cycle.
Thijs Van de Graaf, an energy researcher at the Brussels Institute of Geopolitics, explained that tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway in the Gulf, has decreased dramatically due to the war.
“All Gulf producers that depend on that export route will have to shut down production, as Iraq already did with two or three large oil fields,” Van de Graaf told Al Jazeera.
“And this could have long-term knock-on effects, because you don’t turn an oil well on and off like you turn a light switch,” he said. “This is bad news and time is running out for many producers in the region.”
There’s no end in sight
The war has shown no signs of abating, and top US officials have vowed to rain “death and destruction” on Iran amid growing concerns about a possible ground invasion.
Meanwhile, Iran has continued to fire at targets across the region despite international condemnation of the attacks as a violation of international law.
In a social media post on Friday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran was “committed to lasting peace in the region, but we do not hesitate to defend the dignity and sovereignty of our nation.”
Addressing a renewed push for mediation, Pezeshkian said any such effort “should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and inflamed this conflict,” referring to the United States and Israel.
