Sucking the Qatar Emirate into becoming a “Major Non-Nato Ally” and “Friend of America” is intent upon eventually appropriating and/or exerting control through military means, corruption, regime change or otherwise over:
THE LARGEST MARITIME GAS RESERVES ON THE PLANET.
Qatar: “Major Non-NATO Ally”
On January 31st, 2022, less than a month prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden designated Qatar as a “Major Non-NATO ally” of the United States.
Prior to the Ukraine war, Qatar had been pressured to join the US-NATO consensus against Russia as a “close ally”. In turn, Russia had been excluded by FIFA from participating in the Qatar World Cup.
President Joe Biden informed the media prior to his White House meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, that Qatar had accepted to become a “Major Non-NATO Ally” (MNNA).
The MNNA appointment is granted to “close allies” which are not members of NATO but which have “a strategic working relationship” with the U.S. Military. According to the US State Department the “Major Non-NATO Ally” (MNNA) designation
“is a powerful symbol of the close relationship the United States shares with those countries and demonstrates our deep respect for the friendship for the countries to which it is extended.” (emphasis added)
Why was Qatar invited to become a Close Ally of America?
President Biden had been informed and was fully aware that Russia would be invading Ukraine in the course of the month of February 2022. (See NYT report below)
Biden’s January 31, 2022 statement raised the issue of America’s alliance with Qatar (which owns the World’s largest maritime gas reserves together with Iran), while at the same time addressing how a possible Russian invasion could affect natural gas supplies in Europe:
“President Biden said Monday [January 31, 2022] that he would name Qatar as a “major non-NATO ally” of the United States, a designation that will clear the way for greater security cooperation and investment in the Gulf nation at a time when Mr. Biden is seeking help boosting natural gas supplies in Europe.
The president is eager to reassure European nations that they will not suffer natural gas shortages if a war between Ukraine and Russia breaks out in the weeks ahead. Russia is one of the largest suppliers of natural gas to Germany and other countries in western Europe. …
I am notifying Congress that I will designate Qatar as a major non-NATO ally to reflect the importance of our relationship,” Mr. Biden said.” (NYT, emphasis added)
There is something “fishy” regarding the appointment of Qatar (a small country with about 300,000 citizens) to the status of a “major non-NATO ally”(MNNA).
On Behalf of the Pentagon?
Against whom?
“Military Aid” to Qatar, America’s New “Major Non-NATO Ally”
Exactly ten months later (following Biden’s contentious January 31st statement), coinciding with “Day Ten” of the FIFA World Cup, the Pentagon entered into a military cooperation agreement with its “Novel” Major Non-NATO Ally, namely the Emirate of Qatar.
A one billion dollar deal was announced for the purchase of sophisticated drone equipment to be used by Doha against an “unnamed foreign enemy”.
The US Department of Defense (the DOD’s DSCA) announcement pointed to …”a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Qatar” of a sophisticated counter drone apparatus described as the:
“Fixed Site-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS)”.
A “System of Systems” for a modest “estimated cost of $1 billion”.
The US military industrial complex is involved, with trainers, military advisors and consultants to be stationed in Qatar. The contractors are Raytheon Technologies, Scientific Research Corporation (SRC), and Northrop Grumman, which will be collaborating with the Emirate’s military.
It is all for a good cause. “Improve the security of a friendly country [Qatar]”. According to the Pentagon’s DSCA:
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country [Qatar] that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in [West Asia],”
Is this one billion dollar sale of anti-drone systems to Qatar intended to threaten Iran? Once installed, who will be pulling the strings?
What are Washington’s “Foreign Policy and National Security Objectives” Pertaining to Qatar?
QUESTION: Is it a ploy to create divisions within the structure of Qatar’s military alliance and partnership with Iran as well as trigger the entry of U.S. military personnel, advisers, etc. into the midst of the Emirati government and military?
ANSWER: There is an unspoken strategic objective behind this alleged military alliance with Qatar.
It’s “NATURAL GAS”.
Sucking the Qatar Emirate into becoming a “Major Non-Nato Ally” and “Friend of America” is intent upon eventually appropriating and/or exerting control through military means, corruption, regime change or otherwise over:
THE LARGEST MARITIME GAS RESERVES ON THE PLANET.
The South Pars North Dome: the Planet’s Largest Maritime Gas Reserves
Qatar is not only a military ally of Iran, the emirate is a Partner in the development of the World’s largest Maritime Gas Reserves, jointly owned in an agreement between Iran and Qatar.
Carefully examine the data (Table Below). The South Pars North Dome reserves far surpass all major maritime gas reserves Worldwidecombined held by Russia, Iran, Netherlands, Norway, Egypt, Turkmenistan, US, etc.
It has recoverable reserves of 35,000 km3. Compare that to the 25 largest maritime gas reserves (See Table below)
Needless to say, these joint Qatar-Iran gas reserves are strategic in regards to the ongoing energy crisis.
Source of Table wikipedia
Qatar and Iran share the largest maritime natural gas base in the world. From an economic and energy point of view it’s absolutely strategic. They are allies, they are friends.
The U.S. foreign policy objective is to ultimately destroy and undermine that “friendship” with Iran which is highly valued and supported by Qatari citizens.
The export of gas from South Pars North Dome transits through Iran, Turkey and Russia.
Qatar, Russia and Iran are the largest holders Worldwide of gas reserves. In 2009 they reached an agreement to create a ‘gas troika’, a trilateral gas cooperation entity including the development of joint projects.
A large number of countries including South Korea, India, Japan, China are importing NLG from Qatar.
In recent developments (November 27, 2022) ‘QatarEnergy signed a 27-year deal to supply China’s Sinopec with liquefied natural gas”.
Qatar has also a strategic alliance with China.
Washington’s objective under the disguise of America’s “Major Non-NATO Alliance” with Qatar is to:
–Break the Qatar-Iran Partnership
–Exclude Iran from the Joint Maritime Gas Field
-Exert US Control over the Maritime Gas Field in the Persian Gulf
-Weaken and Disable the “Gas Troika” (Russia, Iran, Qatar)
-Create Chaos in the Global Energy Market,
-Undermine the Trade in Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to Numerous Countries
And it’s taking place in The Qatar Emirate. Will it Succeed?
“Sleeping with The Enemy”: The Al-Udeid Air Force Base
Flashback to June 2019
In late June 2019, after Iran shot down a U.S. drone , US Central Command (CENTCOM) on the orders of President Trump, confirmed the deployment of US Air Force F-22 stealth fighters from the Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar.
At the last minute, the air raid was cancelled. President Trump “called off the swiftly planned military strikes on Iran” while intimating in his tweet that “any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force.”
Smoking Gun?
The media coverage of Trump’s June 2019 plan to attack Iran, failed to acknowledge that the Al-Udeid air force base in Qatar (America’s largest Air Force Base in the Middle East and Forward Headquarters of US Central Command) from which these U.S. air raids were to be launched was (in 2019) from a strategic standpoint located in enemy territory.
The military and intelligence pundits and advisers were silent on the matter, they didn’t take the trouble to examine the geopolitical implications pertaining to the location of America’s Al Udeid Air Force Base.
Al Udeid Base
The Role of US Central Command
USCENTCOM is the theater-level Combatant Command for operations in the broader Middle East region extending from Afghanistan to North Africa. It is the most important Combat Command of the Unified Command structure. It has led and coordinated several major Middle East war theaters including Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003). It is also involved in Syria.
In the case of a war with Iran, operations in the Middle East would be coordinated by US Central Command with headquarters in Tampa, Florida in permanent liaison with its forward command headquarters in Qatar.
“The base is technically Qatari property playing host to the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command.”
With 11,000 US military personnel, it is described as “one of the U.S. military’s most enduring and most strategically positioned operations on the planet” (Washington Times). Al-Udeid also hosts the US Air Force’s 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, considered to be “America’s most vital overseas air command”.
Since the May 2017 split of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Qatar has become a staunch ally of both Iran and Turkey (which despite its role in NATO is also an ally of Iran and Russia).
From a legal standpoint, the Al-Udeid base is owned by the Qatar Emirate Air Force.
In 2019, Qatar was an ally of Iran and the Al-Udeid base was in enemy territory.
Following Biden’s January 31st 2022 announcement, Qatar’s “Major Non-NATO Ally” status signifies that the Al-Udeid Base is now located in the territory of a “close ally” of the U.S.
The underlying objective is to disrupt enemy military alliances, destabilize the Iran-Qatar Maritime Gas Partnership as well undermine the trade in NLG to the detriment of Western Europe.
Qatar’s status as a “close ally” of US-NATO also provides a potential stepping stone towards a full fledged war against Iran?
Has “Sleeping with the Enemy” become the Mainstay of US Foreign Policy.
The US is sleeping with Turkey, a military heavyweight in NATO which just so happens to be operating Russia’s S-400 air defense system. Turkey is a Double Speak, de facto ally of Russia.
Several allies of the US have adopted Russia’s S-400 defense system including Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt. The adoption of the S-400 implies de facto military cooperation with the Russian military.
What we are dealing with are complex, unstable and contradictory cross-cutting coalitions which could lead to military escalation. Reminiscent of World War I, shifting alliances and the structure of military coalitions are crucial determinants of history.
Today’s military alliances, including “cross-cutting coalitions” as well as “sleeping with the enemy” are equally dangerous, markedly different and exceedingly more complex than those pertaining to World War I, -i.e the confrontation between “The Triple Entente” and “the Triple Alliance”.
By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Published by GR
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com.