Qatar has begun building a comprehensive legal case over Iranian attacks on its territory and is preparing to receive claims from those affected as Doha considers seeking compensation for billions of dollars in damage and losses, The New Arab has learned.
The move marks a significant step in Qatar's response to the Iranian attacks, shifting its focus from condemnation towards documenting damage and establishing potential claims for compensation.
Qatari authorities are preparing to receive claims from people and businesses affected by the attacks, which have injured around 20 people and damaged residential, industrial and commercial facilities, vehicles and critical energy infrastructure.
The legal file will document damage and losses resulting from the Iranian attacks, using information provided by those affected to enable Qatari authorities and other relevant bodies to pursue compensation at a later stage.
The development comes as Doha steps up diplomatic and legal action over the attacks, arguing they had no legal basis and maintaining that Qatar retains its right to defend itself and seek full compensation for its losses.
On 4 September, Qatar sent identical letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the UN Security Council for September, Jerome Bonafont, responding to a letter from the acting head of Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations.
Doha said Iranian claims could not, regardless of how often they were repeated, provide a legal basis for attacks targeting Qatar since 28 February.
Qatar has sought to address the dispute through international institutions, framing the Iranian attacks as an issue of international law and the UN Charter rather than solely as a bilateral political dispute.
It argued that the attacks violated the prohibition on the use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of states under Article 2 of the UN Charter.
Qatar also cited UN Security Council Resolution 2817 of 2026, which condemned the Iranian attacks and called on Tehran to refrain immediately from acts or threats that violate international law.
Doha rejected Iran's attempt to justify the attacks as self-defence, arguing that the requirements for invoking Article 51 of the UN Charter had not been met.
Qatar said letters submitted to the Security Council in recent months documented attacks on civilian targets, including energy facilities, tankers and commercial vessels.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari on 4 September also rejected what he described as Iranian "selective quotation" from a document prepared for security and operational purposes.
He said Qatar's official record submitted to the UN documented Iranian missiles being launched at civilian, commercial and residential areas.
A Qatari letter to the UN in March documented 16 people injured in attacks, while another letter in July recorded three injuries, including a child.
Doha has also stressed that the attack on gas facilities at Ras Laffan was officially documented in UN records and was not merely an "alleged attack".
Billions in energy losses
The damage to Ras Laffan could form one of the most significant elements of any future compensation claim because of its importance to Qatar's gas industry and global energy supplies.
The Qatari Defence Ministry said Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial Area were attacked by Iranian drones on 2 March.
The attacks hit facilities linked to the gas sector, including two of Qatar's 14 liquefaction trains and a gas liquids facility.
Around 17% of Qatar's liquefied natural gas export capacity, equivalent to approximately 12.8 million tonnes annually, was disrupted.
QatarEnergy subsequently declared force majeure on contracts with buyers and suspended production operations for natural gas and related products.
The company said Ras Laffan was hit again by an Iranian missile on 18 March, causing large fires and significant material damage but no deaths.
QatarEnergy estimated infrastructure damage at around $26 billion, while Minister of State for Energy Affairs and QatarEnergy chief executive Saad Al Kaabi said lost gas revenues could reach $20 billion annually.
The company has said the affected capacity could take between three and five years to restore fully.
Record of attacks
Qatar has documented a series of Iranian missile and drone attacks since 28 February.
Sixteen people were injured by shrapnel on 28 February as Qatari air defences intercepted a barrage of Iranian missiles. The Interior Ministry said 66 missiles were launched and authorities received more than 100 reports of falling shrapnel.
Hamad International Airport was also disrupted after Qatari airspace was closed, resulting in flight cancellations.
Qatar was subjected to two further missile attacks on 8 April, hours after a ceasefire was announced, with falling shrapnel causing four injuries and damaging a home.
On 1 April, the Qatari Defence Ministry said Iran launched three cruise missiles towards Qatar. Two were intercepted, while a third struck an oil tanker chartered by QatarEnergy off the country's northern coast.
The tanker's structure was damaged, although its crew were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported.
Qatar also reported a drone attack on 4 April targeting infrastructure, while during the ceasefire a drone struck a commercial cargo ship in Qatari territorial waters near Mesaieed port, causing a limited fire but no injuries.
In July, three people, including a child, were injured by falling shrapnel after Iranian missiles were intercepted.
How could Qatar seek compensation?
Qatari lawyer Hawas Al Shammari told The New Arab that the strength of any compensation case would depend not simply on the amount Qatar sought but on its ability to document damage, establish its value and demonstrate a causal link to the attacks.
He pointed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's case against Uganda before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Congo sought more than $11 billion, but the court ultimately awarded $325 million in compensation in 2022 after assessing the evidence, causation and value of the damage.
Al Shammari said UN Security Council Resolution 2817 was significant because it found that the Iranian attacks constituted a breach of international law and condemned attacks on civilians and civilian objects.
However, the resolution did not establish a compensation mechanism.
He pointed to Human Rights Council Resolution 61/1, adopted on 25 March 2026, as another important development because it explicitly called on Iran to provide full, effective and prompt reparation to victims for damage and injuries resulting from the attacks.
Al Shammari said Qatar's repeated correspondence with the UN also created a dated international record of the attacks and demonstrated Doha's continued assertion of its rights, potentially strengthening a future compensation case.
There is no single clear legal route through which Qatar could compel Iran to pay compensation, however.
Al Shammari said the ICJ could be an option if a legal basis for its jurisdiction could be established through an applicable treaty between Qatar and Iran or a subsequent special agreement between the two countries.
Iran's 2023 declaration accepting the ICJ's compulsory jurisdiction is limited and does not appear to cover a dispute of this kind, he said.
Another possibility would be the creation of a dedicated international claims mechanism. Al Shammari cited the compensation commission established following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the Ukraine Damage Register as potential models.
Claims involving ships, tankers and commercial facilities could also proceed through insurance, reinsurance, arbitration, domestic courts or negotiated settlements.
For now, Al Shammari said Qatar's priority should be to build a comprehensive evidentiary record detailing what was damaged, when it was damaged, its value, who caused the damage and the evidence establishing that link.
The decision over whether to pursue the claims through a court, compensation commission or negotiations could come later.
Evidence not collected now may be difficult to recover in the future, he said, making documentation the foundation of any eventual claim for compensation.
Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here.