I read it so that AY is looking into flying to the Middle East themselves, with DOH being the prime suspect.

Right now it would make sense as QR is struggling with a shortage of aircraft (due to grounding a large part of their A350 fleet). They've already wet leased Oman Air A333's, dry leased Cathay Pacific B77W's and some flights have been taken over by other Oneworld airlines (e.g. JFK - DOH now has one daily AA flight, but the route has also QR operated flights). Well, it would be a huge loss in terms of onboard service quality if flights to DOH would be operated by AY instead of QR.