Pentagon chief Hegseth announces Qatari Air Force facility at Idaho base | Military News

The US and Qatar have signed a letter of settlement to deliver a Qatari F-15 fighter jet contingent to a US navy base.

US Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth has introduced that the US and Qatar have signed a letter of settlement to construct a Qatari Emiri Air Pressure facility at a US Air Pressure base within the western US state of Idaho.

The announcement on Friday got here throughout a gathering between Hegseth and Qatari Defence Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on the Pentagon.

Hegseth praised Qatar’s position in serving to to mediate Gaza ceasefire talks, with an initial phase of a deal between Israel and Hamas going into impact on Friday.

“Nobody apart from President Trump may have achieved the peace that we consider might be a long-lasting peace in Gaza and Qatar performed a considerable position from the start,” Hegseth stated.

Sheikh Saoud, in the meantime, additionally hailed the cooperation between Washington and Doha on the ceasefire breakthrough, which goals to finish Israel’s two-year-long struggle in Gaza. That battle has left greater than 67,190 Palestinians lifeless.

He stated the settlement confirmed what might be achieved when the US works with companions within the area, together with Egypt and Turkiye, with “braveness and belief”.

Hegseth then shifted his remarks to the Mountain House Air Pressure Base in Idaho, which he stated would host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to “improve our mixed coaching, enhance lethality, [and] interoperability”.

Qatar presently hosts the biggest US Air Pressure base within the Center East, the Al Udeid airbase. It was additionally named a serious non-NATO ally by US President Joe Biden in 2022.

Whereas working as a mediator to finish the struggle in Gaza, Qatar has twice been focused in assaults by overseas international locations.

In June, Iran launched an air strike on Al Udeid, hitting a communications dome. Tehran didn’t hit some other websites in Qatar exterior of the US base.

In September, Israel additionally attacked a neighbourhood in Qatar the place a Hamas negotiating delegation was assembly. Amongst these killed was a member of Qatar’s inner safety drive.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani condemned the assault as “state terrorism”. US President Donald Trump additionally criticised Israel for finishing up an assault on Qatari soil.

Weeks later, Trump signed an executive order saying Washington “shall regard any armed assault on the territory, sovereignty, or important infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a risk to the peace and safety of the US”.

“Within the occasion of such an assault, the US shall take all lawful and applicable measures — together with diplomatic, financial, and, if essential, navy — to defend the pursuits of the US and of the State of Qatar and to revive peace and stability,” his assertion stated.