Qatar provides vital U.S. security link in Middle East
Nation hosts base where coalition keeps tabs on air campaigns
Qatar is a tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom often overshadowed by its larger and more powerful neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, or more glamorous ones, such as the United Arab Emirates, home to the gleaming city of Dubai. Yet Qatar is a vital security partner in the volatile region.
A diplomatic dispute has set Saudi Arabia and its Middle Eastern allies against Qatar because of its ties to Iran, the Saudis’ chief rival in the region, raising concerns about the delicate balance of power in the Gulf. Here’s why Qatar matters to the United States: MILITARY COOPERATION Qatar is home to the U.S.-led coalition’s Combined Air Operations Center at al-Udeid military base. This sophisticated coalition facility monitors air campaigns in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region. The hightech center is filled with monitors and computers that can track fighters, bombers, refueling tankers and drones throughout the Middle East and operates 24/7.
The Air Force’s 379th Air Expeditionary Wing operates about 100 aircraft from the al-Udeid base. About every 10 minutes, a coalition aircraft takes off or lands at the base, the Air Force said. More than 11,000 U.S. and coalition service members are deployed to or assigned to the base, including more than 300 attached to the air operations center, according to U.S. Air Forces Central Command. Qatar invested $5 billion to upgrade al-Udeid, helping cement its role as an important U.S. military hub in the region. Operations at the base have not been affected by the diplomatic dispute, the Air Force said Monday. ARMS SALES Qatar is a small country but has invested heavily in its military. Increasingly, it has turned to the United States for military hardware. In 2014, it purchased more than $10 billion in U.S. military equipment, including Apache helicopters, Patriot missiles and aircraft, according to the State Department. The ties with the United States go back decades. Qatar’s small military, which consists of fewer than 12,000 troops, deployed forces to fight alongside the United States during the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. The United States and Qatar have had a Defense Cooperation Agreement since 1992, which lays out military cooperation between the two countries. TRADE Qatar is one of the richest nations in the world based on average wealth per person and has developed close economic ties with the United States, Qatar’s biggest foreign investor and a major supplier to the country’s oil and gas industry, the State Department said. Qatar’s capital, Doha, is less well-known and slightly less glitzy than Dubai, but it is home to luxury hotels and high-end malls packed with the latest American fashions, fast-food restaurants and Starbucks outlets.
The country has connections to the Trump family. The stateowned Qatar Airways rents space in Trump Tower in New York, and a line of Trump-branded merchandise is sold in the sheikdom. DIPLOMACY Qatar has positioned itself as a political power broker in the region by maintaining ties with a number of radical Islamic groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, an Iranian-supported militant organization that governs the Gaza Strip. That stance has often put it at odds with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region that oppose Iran, which has joint economic deals with Qatar.
Even so, the United States has benefited from Qatar’s unique role in the region. U.S.-Taliban talks in Qatar led to a deal to exchange five Taliban detainees in return for freeing Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from captivity in Afghanistan in 2014. The Taliban militants were released to Qatar.