Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: After an Israeli attack on Qatar threatened to unravel the Gulf State’s relations with the US and its Gaza peace efforts, President Donald Trump has stepped up with an unprecedented security guarantee offering it military protection against attacks. The White House on October 1 issued Trump’s executive order declaring that the US would treat any attack on Qatar as a threat to itself and would take military action to defend it. Significantly, the order was signed on September 29, the day when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at the White House with Trump. With Netanyahu at his side, Trump unveiled a peace plan for Gaza that he said had the support of Qatar, other Arab states, and many Muslim-majority countries.
The guarantee draws a red line for Israel, putting Qatar territory off limits for attacks. The order echoes the NATO treaty that is built on the principle that an attack on one of its members would be treated as an attack on all of them. However, Trump’s guarantee to Qatar is not a treaty, which would require the Senate’s approval. Qatar is an important, if sometimes truculent, ally of the US, which has a large military base there.
Former President Joe Biden designated Qatar a major non-NATO ally in 2022. Israel attacked a building in Doha, on September 9, killing a Qatari internal security staffer, putting Trump in the middle of a fight between two allies.
Israel said the attack was aimed at top leaders of Hamas who were in the complex, but they were unharmed. The attack embarrassed Trump and questioned US credibility because the Qataris were hosting Hamas leaders for negotiations for peace in Gaza under Washington’s aegis.
