JERUSALEM - Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he will “declare Qatar an enemy state” if re-elected, claiming he received intelligence during his premiership that Doha funded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a charge that carries direct implications for U.S. and European counterterrorism policy in the Gulf.
Bennett, who is running in the October 2026 Knesset election as the leader of the “Together” alliance, called Qatar “the main sponsor of Islamist terrorism” and said he “received intelligence that Qatar also funded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards [IRGC].” He first made the statements on July 27 and reiterated his threat to declare Qatar an enemy state on July 29. Bennett maintained that current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “absolutely” seen the same intelligence.
No publicly available information substantiates Bennett’s claims further, but the allegation is not new. During a visit to the White House in June 2021, then-Israeli President Reuven Rivlin reportedly shared intelligence with then-President Joe Biden about “recent funding” that Doha had provided to the IRGC. The U.S. State Department opened an inquiry into the allegation shortly after Rivlin departed, but the inquiry’s outcome has not been publicly reported.
The financial trail between Qatar and Iran has drawn scrutiny for nearly a decade. Weeks before Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt imposed a blockade on Qatar in June 2017 over accusations of supporting terrorism and maintaining close ties with Tehran, Qatar paid approximately $1 billion to free 26 of its citizens held hostage by Iran-backed Iraqi militants. Part of the ransom allegedly went to the IRGC. After the blockade cut Qatar off from its land border with Saudi Arabia, through which it had received approximately 40 percent of its food imports, Iran sent food shipments and opened its airspace and shipping lanes to Doha. Qatar reportedly paid Iran upwards of $130 million per year in overflight fees.
Those payments flowed into Tehran’s coffers as the first Trump administration attempted to starve the regime of funds through its maximum pressure campaign. Qatar publicly opposed the U.S. effort, arguing that “sanctions are not the way forward to solve the problem.” Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt lifted their blockade on Qatar in 2021.
Beyond established evidence of Qatar financing Hamas, an Iranian proxy, subsequent reports about direct financial support for the IRGC are scant. Qatar has, however, invited the IRGC twice to showcase its arsenal at the biennial Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition.
Israel’s October 2026 Knesset election will test whether Bennett’s hard line on Qatar gains traction with voters and whether the intelligence he references enters the broader public record.