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The US will allow Qatar to build an air force facility at an American military base in the western state of Idaho, as Washington deepens its security partnership with Doha.
The facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in south-west Idaho will host Qatari fighter jets and pilots, who will train alongside Americans.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth and his Qatari counterpart, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, signed the agreement at the Pentagon on Friday.
It comes after President Donald Trump pledged in an executive order last week to guarantee its ally’s security and to regard any attack on the Gulf state as a threat to “the peace and security of the US”.
Trump’s move came a month after Israel launched a targeted strike on a building in Doha in an attempt to kill senior officials from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, infuriating Trump.
The Gulf state has played a central role in mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza.
The president later watched as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologised for the attack during his recent visit to Washington.
Maga influencer Laura Loomer, a Trump confidante, on Friday slammed the Pentagon’s agreement with Qatar over the Idaho base.
“So we agreed to go to war for Qatar and now we are letting them train pilots on US soil? The Qatari influence on the Trump administration is totally out of control,” Loomer wrote on X on Friday.
“Why is there so much Islamic influence on the Trump administration?” she added. “Will the next 9/11 be done with F-15s? I guess we are going to find out.”
Under the agreement, the base will host a dozen Qatari F-15QA jets for 10 years, with an option to extend the duration, according to the Pentagon. About 300 additional Qatari and US air force personnel will live on the base.
The base will host a “contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability”, Hegseth said. “It’s just another example of our partnership.”
Qatar’s defence minister touted his country’s “deep defence relationship” with the US, and said Friday’s agreement would “advance our shared defence goals”.
A longtime US ally, Qatar hosts Washington’s largest military base in the Middle East and has significant investments in US assets. The American base, Al Udeid, was briefly caught up in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles at it.
Qatar also gifted the US a $400mn luxury jumbo jet in May to be used as Air Force One, which the Air Force has begun modifying.
No foreign countries have military bases in the US in the same the way Washington does around the world, but allied troops travel to America for training. Mountain Home hosts some Singaporean jets as part of a training programme, but the construction of a facility such as Qatar’s is unusual.
The Pentagon said the action “is necessary to help ensure the combat readiness and enhanced performance of this partner nation in the event that multinational conflicts arise”. The Qatari jets would be “operating as a separate but integrated fighter squadron” under the command of the 366th Fighter Wing’s commander.
Hegseth said: “In those moments when we needed support in the region, Qatar was there without a doubt, without a blink, and that has meant a great deal.”
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