President Donald Trump’s first trip will be to the Middle East in mid-May. He will visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The president has emphasized increasing business relations and both the Saudis and Emiratis have pledged significant investments in the United States. The Qataris historically have made major investments and also spend large amounts on lobbying and influence operations.
Trump likely will ask the Qataris to increase their business investments as he seeks to improve U.S.-Qatari relations overall. There are advantages to bringing Qatar closer into the fold, but there are areas where Trump should condition the quality of relations to improvements in Qatar’s behavior.
Trump should condition the U.S.-Qatar alliance on Doha making several reforms:
Qatar has deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its many offshoots, including Hamas.
First, Trump should demand that Qatar end its longstanding support for terrorism. Qatar has deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its many offshoots, including Hamas. Doha has hosted senior leaders of these groups. Qatar also maintains cordial relations with the Taliban and even Al Qaeda affiliates. Normally, these relationships would disqualify any country for partnership with the United States, but Qataris have played both sides masterfully.
Qatar has used its connections to these organizations to provide the United States with intelligence on terror groups it does not support. This, in turn, has led to the capture or killing of multiple high-value targets. The Central Intelligence Agency gave the head of Qatari State Security Agency Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Khulaifi recognition for this assistance last year, declaring, “Another main reason for the award was the cooperation between the CIA and Qatari intelligence in counterterrorism and the ability of the Qatari State Security Agency to prevent and foil threats and attacks in the Middle East.”
Qatar also has served as intermediary to communicate with these groups. The Qataris, for example, reportedly delivered the ransom to the Haqqani network when President Barack Obama arranged the return of Bowe Bergdahl.
Qatar has built and provided major support to CENTCOM with al Udeid Air Base, today the largest U.S. operation in the region.
Regardless of the value of such Qatari assistance, the core support it provides designated terror groups must stop. If Doha wants better relations with the United States, Trump must predicate any deal on an end to Qatari support for terrorism.
A second concern is the growing economic cooperation with Iran that helps Tehran evade sanctions. Aside from the damage this does to Trump’s maximum pressure campaign that seeks to push the Iranians to negotiate and avoid war, Qatar should not be so tightly aligned with Iran and still considered a U.S. ally. It is time for Qatar to pick a side.
Qatar has provided more than $6 billion since 2007 lobbying the U.S. government and dispensing largesse to top U.S. universities.
There are also legitimate concerns with the volume of money the Qataris spread around in the United States to buy influence; for example, Qatar has provided more than $6 billion since 2007 lobbying the U.S. government and dispensing largesse to top U.S. universities. Every country is free to do what they wish with their money, within legal boundaries, but the sheer amount of money coming from Qatar warrants scrutiny.
Trump also might raise the issue of Al Jazeera, the Qatari-controlled media outlet. Al Jazeera has multiple English channels that too often hide how anti-American the company’s Arabic programs are. In 2020, the U.S. Justice Department ordered the AJ+ online service to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, an action the company still evades.
Trump has shown the ability to bring countries to the table to negotiate on thorny issues. If he succeeds in using those skills to sway the Qataris from their wayward path, it could be an invaluable step to bring peace and prosperity to the region.
