US Hints at Abandoning Military Base in Qatar

US President Donald Trump told the Saudi King Mohammad bin Salman on Friday that other countries would ‘gladly’ build a replacement for the US.

The latest in a series of moves by President Trump that appeared to throw a wrench into State Department efforts to calm the Qatar blockade situation saw him telling the Saudi King today that the US could just abandon their largest military base in the Middle East, the al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar, Antiwar reported.

Officials from the blockading states have previously suggested that the US ought to consider finding an alternative to the Qatar base, as State and Pentagon officials express concern the protracted blockade could start impacting US wars in the region, which are run out of the base.

This is a hugely important base for the US, and that’s a big part of why State Department officials have been so desperate to try to resolve the dispute. President Trump, however, has treated this base with relative ambivalence, and in his talk with Salman today said he was confident other countries in the region would “gladly” build the US a replacement base if they abandoned Qatar.

Trump may be over-optimistic in that regard, particularly if after Qatar spent decades cultivating close ties with the US he just cuts them loose at the first sign of mild inconvenience. Hosting a US base is historically seen as an easy way to get US support, and if that’s no longer the case there may not be so many willing to host a new one.

Trump has also told an American news channel that the US will maintain good relations with Qatar, adding that the US airbase won’t be moved out of the Middle Eastern country despite the diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on Doha by the Saudi-led group, Al Jazeera reported.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar on June 5.

Qatar is home to the Al-Udeid airbase that holds the forward headquarters of Central Command and hosts around 10,000 American troops.

But while saying there are “10 countries willing to build us another base”, Trump said “we will not have a problem with the military base”.

“We are going to have a good relationship with Qatar and not going to have a problem with the military base,” Trump said in an interview with CBN News.

“If we ever had to leave, we’d have 10 countries willing to build us another one. And they’ll pay for it. The days of us paying for things are largely over.”

Following the Arab countries’ decision to impose the blockade on Qatar last month, Trump, in a series of tweets, seemed to back the move, saying his trip to the Middle East is “already paying off” after he “stated there can no longer be funding of radical Ideology”.