Iran's President arrives in Qatar for gas summit

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi meets with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani upon his arrival in Doha for a two-day state visit to participate in a gas summit.

One of the issues that may be on the agenda is the desire of the countries to expand cooperation on a variety of levels.

Over the years, the countries have talked about how to use surplus electricity from Qatar by swapping with countries such as Pakistan or Afghanistan and connecting Iran and Qatar electric grids undersea. This was reported back in 2020 and 2021. 

“The visit comes at the official invitation of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani,” state news agency reported. During the visit, Iran's President will witness the signing of several agreements and memoranda of understanding between Tehran and Doha. The meetings will include talks with Iranians who live in Qatar and also businesspeople.

Major natural gas exporting nations on Sunday began meetings in Doha to discuss how to meet skyrocketing world demand as tensions surrounding Ukraine stoke fears in Europe about gas supplies from Russia.

Experts from the 11-member Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) started meetings in the Qatari capital, ahead of ministerial level talks on Monday and heads of state and government on Tuesday. 

Member states include Russia, Qatar, Iran, Libya, Algeria and Nigeria -- who together account for more than 70 percent of proven gas reserves -- and the meetings opened as Ukraine complained of "new provocative shelling" on the frontline between its forces and Russian-backed rebels.  

With Europe's fears growing that Russia will invade Ukraine, natural gas prices are at close to double the level they traded at in late 2020.