Amid growing scrutiny of Qatar, U.S. renews military base agreement

“It’s a bit of unfortunate timing,” Jonathan Lord, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, told JI. “Typically these basing agreements are contracted out and negotiated [and] discussed with very long lead times. So it wouldn’t surprise me if this has been something the department has been working on for quite some time, well before Oct. 7.”

Lord described the base as having been “mutually beneficial” to the U.S. and Qatar, providing “a tremendous amount of capability” in the region.

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Lord said that, while there are reasons for concern with Qatar, Al Udeid shouldn’t be connected to those debates.

“There’s a separate debate to be had about the way Qatar does business in the region and who they host and who they talk to, but looping in basing and these strategically important positions — ultimately I’m not sure if it’s useful to us,” he argued. “It might do strategically more damage to us than thinking about other ways to influence the Qataris.”

He acknowledged that it’s “repugnant” that Hamas leaders are able to roam Qatar freely and said there could be room to leverage the U.S.-Qatar relationship, such as its status as a major non-NATO ally, to press for reforms.

But Lord also noted that Doha has successfully helped bring Americans and Israelis home, that Qatar has sought to mediate a range of regional conflicts and that the U.S. had allegedly asked Qatar in the past to allow Hamas to maintain a presence so that Qatar can act as a channel for negotiations.

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