Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who ruled Qatar from 1995 to 2013, making it the world's top LNG exporter, founding Al Jazeera and securing the 2022 World Cup, has died at 74, the Amiri Diwan announced.
Oman, Qatar and Pakistan raced this weekend to revive US-Iran diplomacy after Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over following two nights of American strikes, with control of the Strait of Hormuz the central dispute.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired at least two missiles at commercial ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz overnight into 7 July, striking a Qatari LNG carrier and setting it on fire. Two vessels were badly damaged but no casualties were reported. The strikes are the first in the chokepoint since a US-Iran truce took hold in June, and pushed crude prices higher as Europe watches its energy lifeline.
The United States and Iran concluded two days of indirect, Qatari- and Pakistani-mediated talks in Doha on 2 July without resolving control of the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for about a quarter of seaborne oil. The round focused on maritime traffic and unfreezing Iranian funds under June's Islamabad Memorandum. Oil fell to four-month lows, and the next round awaits the six-day funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei consolidates power.
A renewed tanker strike and US retaliation have tested the June ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, leaving the six Gulf monarchies to mediate, hedge and absorb the risks to oil flows and European energy security.
An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Qatar's Ras Laffan complex killed 13 workers and injured 66 during a plant restart. The energy minister called it an accident, ruled out sabotage and said LNG exports were not affected — a relief to a European market already strained by Gulf tensions.
Qatar kept four LNG tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz on 22 June even as Iran-driven disruption emptied the waterway, holding the line between a contained Gulf crisis and a renewed European gas-price shock.