Trump gives Qatar unprecedented security guarantee after Israeli attack
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Trump with the emir of Qatar during a visit to Doha in May. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Trump signed on Monday an executive order to provide Qatar a U.S. security guarantee with conditions similar to NATO's Article 5, according to the text of the order published by the White House.
Why it matters: This is an unprecedented security agreement between the U.S. and an Arab country. It says the U.S. will treat any "armed attack" on the country "as a threat to the peace and security of the United States" and respond accordingly.
- The upgraded U.S. security guarantee is part of the "compensation" to Qatar for the failed Israeli strike against Hamas officials in Doha three weeks ago.
- Because it was issued via executive order, the security guarantee is less binding than a Senate-approved mutual defense treaty.
The intrigue: The order was signed on Monday, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House, but was only made public two days later.
What it says: "[I]n light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression, it is the policy of the United States to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack".
- In the event of a future attack against Qatar, "the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability."
- U.S. military and intelligence leaders "shall maintain joint contingency planning with the State of Qatar to ensure a rapid and coordinated response to any foreign aggression against the State of Qatar," it says.
Between the lines: The U.S. move shows how Qatar managed to leverage the crisis to both isolate Israel and get a strategic breakthrough no other Arab country has managed.
- Under pressure from Trump, Netanyahu had to apologize to Qatar both in private and in public for the strike — a major political humiliation.
- Trump's advisers also leveraged the Israel-Qatar crisis to get Netanyahu to accept a plan for ending the war in Gaza for the first time since the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks.
The big picture: Many Arab countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, have asked over the years for such a security guarantee from the U.S. but were denied.
- "Saudi Arabia thought that to get a defense pact with the United States, it would require normalizing relations with Israel. Qatar managed to get a partial defense pact with the United States by getting attacked by Israel," a former U.S. official said.
- Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his confidant Ron Dermer have been trying for years to get a defense treaty with Washington. Instead, the Israeli strike on Doha led to a defense pact between the U.S. and Qatar, with which Israel has very strained relations.
Flashback: At the beginning of Trump's first term, Qatar found itself blockaded by its Gulf neighbors and under increasing allegations in the U.S. of funding terrorism.
- By the end of Trump's first term, the Qataris managed to lift the blockade and get extremely close to the White House.
- During the Biden administration and into Trump 2.0, Qatar has become the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East after Israel.
