Behind the smiles, Qatar’s ruler is an enemy of the United States

The emir of the Gulf state of Qatar is in the United States this week, meeting President Trump and signing huge business deals.

Behind the smiles, handshakes, and multibillion-dollar deal-signing in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani is an enemy of the United States.

Tamim has played a good game keeping its friends close and its enemies closer – and the US is not its friend. Qatar hosts an important military base for the United States, leading many to consider the regime an ally. Meanwhile, Qatar alone remains a state sponsor of global jihadist subversion, extremism, and terrorism – including those who target Americans. Qatar is growing closer to the Islamist regime of Iran.

Ideology requires constant war against ‘infidels’

Qatar’s conduct is logical when considering the regime’s Wahhabist ideology, a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam unique to the Arabian Peninsula which demands total warfare against “infidels” while working with those same enemies in order to build, maintain, and increase its wealth.

The Saudi Arabian kingdom is also Wahabbist, but a rival form. In recent years, Saudi Arabia, under new leadership, has moved away from its state sponsorship of jihadist subversion, extremism, and terrorism after decades of playing off the US and its allies against other jihadists.

The Saudis, neighboring Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt consider the tiny but super-wealthy Qatar under Tamim as a mortal enemy and as one of the greatest dangers to their interests. They severed diplomatic relations with Doha in 2017.

Qatar has prevented the United States from taking action against it by hosting the vital Al-Udeid military base that is critical to CENTCOM and USSOCOM. Qatar has also joined the US and other coalition partners on joint offensive military combat operations when circumstances suit it.

The Qatari government has been adept at maintaining a paid cadre of surrogates, advocates, and agents of influence in Washington, DC, employing public relations shops, law firms, political operatives, and policy groups with millions of dollars per year in funding. It targeted American Jews to improve its image, and has hired agents close to President Trump. It dangled huge business deals with Boeing, Chevron, General Electric, Gulfstream, Raytheon, and others, in effect to bribe or buy the US into taking no action against its support for subversion and terrorism.

Key points about Qatar

• The Qatar regime is the 100% owner of Al Jazeera, the TV network that supported Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and continues to support jihadist violence worldwide.
• Qatar is a state-sponsor of Hamas in its war against Israel, even as other Arab states accept Israel’s existence and work with Israel on security issues.
• Qatar is the main state-sponsor of the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to topple the Egyptian government and runs terrorist support operations worldwide. The Trump administration has been grappling for two years about designating the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, but still has not done so.
• Qatar finances a terrorism support network that includes Al Qaeda, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hamas against Israel, and the most extremist terror groups in Libya & Syria.
• Qatar networks with jihadists range from Iran-backed Hezbollah to the Taliban.
• Qatar was the most substantial state sponsor of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
• In 2017, President Donald Trump publicly declared that Qatar is “a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Trump called for Qatar to “stop teaching people to kill other people, stop filling their heads with hate,” and stop funding terror groups.