Trump vows to protect Qatar against any attack, weeks after Israel's strike

US President Donald Trump, in an executive order, has pledged to guarantee Qatar's security and will regard any attack on the Gulf state as a threat to the “peace and security of the US", the Financial Times reported.

 

The move came weeks after Israel launched a military strike in Qatar's capital, Doha, targeting top Hamas leaders and sending shockwaves across the Gulf countries that have looked at Washington as their security guarantor.

 

According to the executive order, the US would respond to any attack on Qatar by taking all “lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and the State of Qatar”.

 

Why Qatar matters to the US

 

Qatar, a long-standing US ally, hosts America's largest military base in the region and has major investments in American assets. It is one of the world’s leading exporters of liquefied natural gas. Qatar is now pressing Hamas to accept Trump's Gaza peace plan, which was introduced on Monday in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Former US senior diplomat Elliott Abrams, who served Trump during his first term, described the order as a “highly unusual step”. He said, "This is the equivalent of a defence treaty with Qatar of the sort the United States has with Japan and South Korea, or to Nato’s Article V. But those commitments were made by treaty, and approved by the Senate."

 

"This is a commitment made by the president without any public discussion or debate or any congressional consultations, much less approval", Abrams further added.

 

Israel targets Hamas leadership in Doha

 

On September 9, Israel escalated the Gaza conflict by targeting Hamas' top leadership in Doha and risked ongoing talks on a ceasefire and hostage release. Condemning the attack, Qatar called it a "flagrant violation of all international laws and norms".

 

The attack also raised questions in the Gulf about the US security commitment to its Arab allies. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Trump held a heated phone call with Netanyahu following the strike in Qatar, with Trump reassuring the Gulf nation that such incidents “will not happen again on their soil".

 

Qatar's role in the Israel-Gaza conflict

 

Qatar has hosted Hamas' political office in the country for over a decade, with Washington's approval, and has acted as the key mediator between Israel and Hamas, long before the conflict broke out in October 2023.

 

The Gulf country, a major non-Nato ally of the US, designated by former president Joe Biden, has carved out a role for itself as a mediator between the US and adversaries, including Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

 

Netanyahu's phone call with Qatari counterpart

 

Netanyahu, who was on a visit to the US, met with Trump on Monday at the White House, when the two agreed to a 20-point peace plan to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza. During his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu held a phone call with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and expressed regret over the military strike in the region, which resulted in the death of one Qatari serviceman and violated the state's sovereignty.

 

The phone call marked a shift in Netanyahu's stance, who, days after the attack, defended it by saying that the Jewish nation was following America's precedent. Drawing inferences from the September 11, 2001, attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, Netanyahu said, "What did America do in the wake of September 11th? It promised to hunt down the terrorists who committed this heinous crime, wherever they may be. We did exactly what America did when it went after the al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, and after they went and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan."

 

Following the call with Netanyahu, Thani expressed his readiness to act as a mediator once again and presented Trump's peace plan to Hamas, which is being reviewed and could likely end the war.