“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday announced a finalized agreement that will allow the Qatari Emiri Air Force to build a facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho,” writes CBS on Friday based on the Pentagon announcement.
Until now, there is no foreign military base on American soil – only “joint training programs” or facilities where foreign pilots might have a semi-permanent presence under a US training program.
But the first to build one will be an Arab Gulf Sunni Monarchy?
Hegseth proclaimed at a signing ceremony alongside Qatari Minister of Defense Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the Pentagon that he is “proud that today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force Facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.”
So it will be a permanent “Qatari Facility” with the broader Mountain Home Air Base, it appears. A key question remains: will the Qataris be able to treat it as sovereign Qatari soil?
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15’s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability, it’s just another example of our partnership,” Hegseth described. “And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.”
“You have been a core part of what has unfolded in Gaza, a historic moment,” Hegseth added. “We’re grateful for the strong partnership that we have, the way you support our troops at Al Udeid, Your Excellency, the line of communication we’ve had together.” The US itself has long had a major airbase outside of Doha, which has actually protected Qatar at times from Iranian missiles.
Again, this seems more than just the typical shared training programs among allies, as the Qataris themselves will build the new facility.
All of this follows President Trump very recently signing an executive order “assuring the security of the state of Qatar.” As we described, it provides Article 5-like guarantees, in which an attack on Qatar is considered a threat to the security of the US. It was meant as a US “sorry” for allowing the Israelis to attack Doha, in the strike which took out five Hamas leaders and a Qatari security guard.
