Amid the hubbub over last weekend's Doha Forum, one detail was largely overlooked: the attendance of former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Iranian officials, current and former, don't regularly run in the same circles as the likes of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also attended the annual conference in Doha. But Qatar is befriending America's adversaries — Iran, as well as China and Russia — and is helping to ensure that none are as isolated as Washington would prefer.
Let's start with Iran. Qatar shares a natural gas field with Iran, so the partnership between the two countries is almost inevitable. "Iran is just 150 miles away from me," Qatar's foreign minister explained to Politico in November 2025. "I share with them the largest gas field in the world. Iran is part of our region, and I have to deal with them," he said.
More than just dealing with the Iranians, the Qataris support and promote them. Tehran and Doha signed six agreements in 2024 to strengthen cultural and economic cooperation, and subsequently further explored ways to "support and strengthen" their bilateral relationship. That discussion happened on June 14 this year, at the beginning of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Indeed, Qatar was thinking about deepening its friendship with Iran as the United States prepared to deploy B-2 bombers to help Israel destroy Iran's nuclear program.
It's hardly surprising that Qatar and the United States were on opposite sides of that war. Doha has repeatedly shown disdain for Washington's Iran policy, including opposing the first Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign and decision to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. In fact, Israeli intelligence indicates that Qatar may have provided the IRGC with funding.
In 2024, Qatar welcomed an Iranian delegation as "VIP" guests to the biennial Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition (DIMDEX). At the expo, Iran promoted missiles and radar systems like those used by the Houthis to attack American ships, and showcased an advanced drone that's capable of reaching Israel with more than a dozen precision bombs on board. The drone, blazoned with the name "Gaza," made its international debut at DIMDEX 2024.
DIMDEX 2026 kicks off on January 19, which brings us to Russia. As in past years, there will be a Visiting Warships Display at the expo for select navies to show off their vessels. Among the eight warships on display will be a Russian destroyer. This is but the latest demonstration of Qatar's support for the Russian military — the same military that invaded Ukraine, unprovoked, in February 2022.
In 2017, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah in Doha. Shoigu was the first-ever Russian defense minister to visit Qatar. During the meeting, Moscow and Doha signed a "military technical cooperation agreement" and a "memorandum of understanding" about air defense and military supplies, according to a Qatari readout.
Relations between Russia and Qatar have continued to expand beyond the military realm. Qatar has more than $13 billion invested in Russia's economy and operates a 2-billion-euro joint investment fund with Moscow. Doha owns nearly one-fifth of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company that the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in October 2025 for helping "fund the Kremlin's war machine." The chairman of Rosneft's board of directors is a former Qatari minister of energy and industry affairs, Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada.
Energy also undergirds Qatar's relationship with America's top economic adversary, China. In 2022, Qatar signed a $60 billion, 27-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreement with state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec). The deal is China's longest-ever LNG supply agreement. Deliveries are scheduled to begin next year.
Business between Qatar and China is booming. And it has been for more than a decade. In 2010, Qatar purchased $2.8 billion worth of shares in the Agricultural Bank of China during the bank's initial public offering and, in 2014, established a $10 billion joint investment fund with China's Citic Group. More recently, Beijing gave Qatar the green light to acquire 10 percent of China's second-largest mutual fund company, China Asset Management Co (ChinaAMC). Qatar became ChinaAMC's third-largest shareholder when the deal closed in July. The sale price is reportedly at least $490 million.
All signs point to the relationship between Qatar and China continuing to grow. Last month, China's ambassador to Qatar said that bilateral relations between the two countries are poised to enter "a new golden era." Beijing and Doha will "join hands to pursue national prosperity and rejuvenation," he said, adding that "our complementary strengths will create vast potential for expanding cooperation."
As Qatar expands its partnerships with China, Russia, and Iran, so too does it maintain its prestigious status as a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) of the United States. Doha shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways. Achieving MNNA status is not a free pass to befriend America's adversaries. The U.S. government needs to set clear boundaries with Qatar before the mega-rich, micro-emirate becomes a liability.
Natalie Ecanow is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Follow Natalie on X @NatalieEcanow and FDD @FDD.