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New York: 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. White House released on Wednesday （local time） 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 Monday, the day when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at the White House to meet 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 Qatar’s capital, 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. America said that Israel did not consult with the US before the attack and informed it only minutes before it began, and Washington’s alert to Doha was too late. Qatar is the hub of regional diplomacy, hosting various rival nations or groups, which often puts it in the line of criticism. The Taliban’s representatives carried on their diplomacy from Qatar. Trump’s guarantee would protect Qatar from attacks by other countries, too. Iran attacked the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June in retaliation for the US attacks on its nuclear facilities. Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who is conducting negotiations to end the Gaza conflict, has met with Hamas leaders in Qatar, according to reports. Israel’s attack in Qatar may have been meant to block a Gaza peace deal that would run counter to the ambitions of the Israeli far-right, which backs Netanyahu, to take over the territory and set up Jewish settlements there. When Netanyahu was at the White House, Trump arranged a call between him and Al Thani for an apology. The White House said that Netanyahu expressed his regret “that, in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty and affirmed that Israel will not conduct such an attack”. As a sign of its close relations with Trump, the emirate gifted him a Boeing 747 during his visit there in May, and it has pledged to invest more than $500 billion in the US during the next decade. IANS |
