Qatar: a strategic geo-political hub for 'US interests'

Written by: (Contributed) on 24 May 2025

(Above: Trump at the Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar Original image from TurDef.com)

It is possible to read anything you want into anything you want; facts, however, have considerable bearing on outcomes and assessments. Trump's recent high-level diplomatic mission to Qatar is but one example in question.

The diplomatic mission was given massive coverage through mainstream media outlets, which invariably relied upon numerous official US diplomatic communiques and mindless, wanton speculation, by the world's editorial boards. Behind the millions of column centimetres of coverage, however, a few relevant facts reveal the strategic and geo-political significance of Qatar for 'US interests'. The main media coverage provided a convenient cover for the main purpose of the high-level diplomacy.

Hidden deep within the trade deal between the US and Qatar, a non-disclosed military budget has been used to elevate the latter as a secure hub for regional 'US interests'. It has been noted that the country's ruling monarchy 'has showered billions of dollars derived from its natural gas reserves on US institutions, mainly the military and universities, while ramping up spending on lobbyists to tilt policy in its favour'. (1)

Turkey’s online TurDef.com revealed some details of the US war manufacturers’ sales successes in Qater, courtesy of super-salesman Trump:

U.S. President Donald Trump announced defence contracts worth $42 billion and an investment worth $10 billion on the Al Udeid Air Base were signed with Qatar.

The defence contract includes C-UAS systems from RTX (Raytheon) for a cost of $1 billion, THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems, MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAVs, GDLS Desert Viper 8x8 armoured vehicles, and KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft.

Trump announced the contract during his speech at the Al Udeid Air Base, which houses U.S. armed forces personnel. The defence contract cluster also includes investing $10 billion in the air base to improve its capabilities.

A brief statement from Canberra contained in a mainstream media release set the stage for endless speculation. Or was it done to deflect attention away from Qatar? It noted, for example, that, 'as Trump stormed through the region this week in a gilded display of pomp and pageantry, escorted by Arab horses, trumpets and meetings in opulent palaces, the region's key players – especially Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Gulf States – are scrambling to work out what it all means'. (2) Qatar, interestingly, was not listed as a regional key player, for non-disclosed reasons. Or was it done to avoid unnecessary publicity about a country closely linked to 'US interests'?

The regional role of Qatar has to be viewed in a historical context, with far-reaching implications for present diplomacy and 'US interests'.

Throughout the previous Cold War, Iran was an important centre for 'US interests' in the Middle East. With the opening of sensitive intelligence facilities on Diego Garcia in 1973, the Indian Ocean military base was the central part of a network stretching from Silvermine in South Africa, Kagnew in Ethiopia, Abu-Musa in Iran, Subic Bay in the Philippines and Pine Gap in Australia. (3)

The Diego Garcia facilities had long range capacity with 'communication with security personnel … for … wide area international events in the Asian and Middle Eastern scene', with continual upgrades. (4) The facilities were also linked global networks based in the elite Five Eyes signals intelligence (SIGINT) sharing provision. (5)

While the Diego Garcia facilities and the Pine Gap connection remain central to US-led military and security provision, official diplomatic silence has been the order of the day, despite a considerable wealth of reliable data about the installation. (6)

The subsequent ousting of the Ethiopian Monarchy in 1974 and the increasingly unstable nature of the country, together with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, however, shook the very foundations of US military and security provision.

Records in the public domain have noted Iran, during the time of the Shah, hosted seven sensitive SIGINT stations, linked into US intelligence networks: Behshahr, Kabkan, Meshad, Klanabad, Astara, Shirabad, and Project Ibex. (7)

Project Ibex, which was based in a previous covert operation, Project Dark Gene, proved a particularly interesting Iranian contribution toward the previous Cold War; it was primarily based in intelligence-gathering against the former Soviet Union with some secret flights flown by serving USAF personnel. (8) Ibex included a secret alliance established between Iran and Israel regarded as highly sensitive by the US. (9) It was used to promote anti-Arab diplomacy in the Middle East; Iranians, historically, regarded as Persian, were treated as puppets by US foreign policy. The subsequent Israeli involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal is best viewed in that light. (10)

Qatar, which won its independence from the UK in 1971, was chosen as a replacement component of the US intelligence-gathering provision soon after the fall of the Shah of Iran. There is no reason to believe its duplicitous role was marked by anything other than an ally of expedience by the US; SIGINT has remained the order of the day. With a geographical location at 52 degrees east and 25 degrees north, for example, the country swings on the same arc as Diego Garcia to Pine Gap, the extended arc then reaches sensitive military facilities in the UK. (11) As a former colonial power, it should be noted that the UK retains extensive diplomatic links inside Qatar through established protocol.

Over the following decades continual upgrades to the US military facilities on Diego Garcia were accompanied by Qatar quietly ushering in a complaint political system to support US-led regional operations, including those specifically within the Middle East.

Qatari-US diplomatic relations, therefore, remain very strong; it has been noted 'multi-billion dollar purchases of arms and other equipment that help intertwine its fate with America's', have taken place. (12)

Some of the other equipment in operation in Qatar would appear to include computer station facilities with access to Echelon. (13) The telecommunications interception facilities are based upon the main UKUSA network, where 'each station in the Echelon network has computers which automatically search through the millions of intercepted messages for ones containing pre-programmed keywords or fax, telex and email addresses … the Echelon system has created an awesome spying capacity for the USA, allowing it to monitor continuously most of the world's communications targeting civilian as well as military traffic'. (14)

Qatar's lobby sector has been noted to possess an 'outsize influence in Washington and has a seat at the table on numerous geo-political issues where it otherwise wouldn't even be an afterthought'. (15) Recent disclosures surrounding 'large sums of money from Qatar landing in the bank accounts of Mr Netanyahu's close aides – even during the war with Hamas in Gaza – raising the prospect of foreign penetration deep inside the highest corridors of political power', are best assessed, however, in the light of the role of the so-called Jonathan Institute. (16) The shadowy Israel-based institute was established by Netanyahu in 1979 and soon became the main link between Israeli and US government officials in an 'emblematic think tank'. (17) Studies of the Jonathan Institute have concluded that it possessed 'substantial ties to MOSSAD'. (18)

While Israel has remained politically divided over the Qatar-Gate revelations, Netanyahu saw fit to actually dismiss the head of the country's domestic security service over the subsequent investigation of the present government; the matter, nevertheless, has remained ongoing. (19) It is considered extremely sensitive although has carried many of the hallmarks of a covert or clandestine operation; influence was being brought to bear from elsewhere.

US diplomatic influence also continues to remain a major consideration with Qatar.

Qatar, for example, has US university campuses in the country, and is also 'the single largest funder of American universities, according to US Department of Education data, providing more than US$6 billion over the past fifteen years through gifts or contracts with schools including Cornell, Georgetown and North-western. Much of that money is tied to 'satellite campuses'. (20) A rising intelligentsia in both Qatar and the US have relied upon the connivance to serve other interests and agendas.

And with it, comes strings: the puppet-masters lurk behind the scenes and their puppets dance to the music; the main theme song remaining Middle Eastern foreign policy initiatives, including covert operations.

1. Qatar's gambit to gain influence, Australian, 16 May 2025.
2. Trump's bold Mid-East gambit, The Weekend Australian, 17-18 May 2025.
3. Essential instruments in US strategy, two new gendarmes: Iran and South Africa, Le Monde Diplomatique, December 1976.
4. See: Shortwave Central, The radio scene on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, 25 July 2019; and, RealClear Defence, Shifting sands at Diego Garcia, 3 February 2025.
5. See: The ties that bind, J.T. Richelson and D. Ball, (Sydney, 1985), The UKUSA SIGINT network, Appendix One.

6. See: The Falcon and the Snowman, Robert Lindsay, (London, 1981).
7. The Ties that Bind, op.cit., Appendix One.
8. See: Project Dark gene and Project Ibex, www.spyflight.co.uk/darkgene.htm.; and, www.acig.org
9. Ibid.
10. Document 72, Transactions 1-6, The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History, Edited Peter Kornblub and Malcolm Byrne, (New York, 1993), pp. 264-69.
11. See: Peters Projection, World Map, Actual Size.
12. Australian, op.cit., 16 May 2025.
13. Echelon, Espionage Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, (London, 2003), pp. 89-93.
14. Ibid.
15. Australian, op.cit., 16 May 2025.
16. Secrets spill as Israel's spy agency is engulfed by Netanyahu row with its boss, Australian, 13 May 2025.
17. The New Red Scare, Introduction, Covert Action – The Roots of Terrorism, (Victoria, 2003), pp. 49-52.
18. Disinformation, ibid., pp. 162-68.
19. Sacking of Israeli spy chief 'tainted', The Weekend Australian, 22-23 March 2025.
20. Australian, op.cit., 16 May 2025.