DOHA – Qatar’s defense minister says Doha plans to expand US military’sal-Udeid airbase and to make the facility and US presence there “permanent.”
“We have a big plan to expand al-Udeid to make it permanent,” Khalid binMohammed al-Attiyah made the remarks during an event held by the HeritageFoundation, a US-based think-thank, in Washington, on Monday.
“Colleagues in the US Department of Defense are reluctant to mention theword permanent, but we are working from our side to make it permanent,” hesaid.
“We are planning for a 2040 Vision in the military-to-military cooperationwith the United States in all aspects whether it is in the Air Force, Navyor the land force,” he said.
Attiyah went on to say that the expansion of the American airbase, whichcurrently houses about 10,000 US military personnel, will allow for 200more housing units for officers and their families as well as a new schoolwithin the compound.
“It will very soon become family oriented place for our American friendsthere. We want more of the families to be stable and feel more comfortablein their stay,” Attiyah said.
Al-Udeid is already the largest US military base in the Middle East. Italso houses military personnel from the United Kingdom and other allies.
Pointing to reports about Qatar’s possible purchase of Russian S-400 airdefense missile system, the Qatari defense chief said it would have noeffect on the “solid” relationship between Doha and Washington.link>
“I think our relation with the United States is much deeper than it will beaffected by if we buy from here or there,” he said.
However, al-Attiyah said that his ministry had not announced the purchaseof Russian S-400 systems yet.
Last week, Qatar’s Ambassador to Russia Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah saidDoha was in talks with Russia on signing a contract for purchases ofRussian-made air defense systems and other weaponry.
Persian Gulf Arab states have stepped up purchasing state-of-the-artweaponry from the world powers amid a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and aSaudi-led quartet of Arab countries.
According to Russian Presidential Aide on Military Cooperation VladimirKozhin, Moscow is negotiating a possible S-400 deal with Saudi Arabia aswell.
Commenting on the ongoing dispute between Qatar and several other PersianGulf states, the Qatari defense minister said Doha wants to end the crisisand the United States plays an important role in solving the conflict.
“We’re open to dialogue. We can discuss anything. The only thing we don’taccept is imposing conditions on us or tampering with our sovereignty,” hesaid.
Back in June, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the UAE imposed a trade anddiplomatic embargo on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, anallegation strongly denied by Doha.
The Saudi-led quartet presented Qatar with a list of demands and gave it anultimatum to comply with them or face consequences.
The demands included closing the Al Jazeera broadcaster, removing Turkishtroops from Qatar’s soil, scaling back cooperation with Iran, and endingties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Doha, however, refused to meet the demands and denounced them asunreasonable.