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Profile: Considerations Being Made by the U.S.' Smaller Allies in the Middle East as Preparations for an Attack on Iraq Continue
All Things Considered: September 12, 2002
 U.S. Troops to Qatar
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
JACKI LYDEN, host:
And I'm Jacki Lyden.
If the United States goes to war against Iraq, US forces may become heavily dependent on a handful of tiny nations in the Persian Gulf. Without them, US planes and troops would have trouble finding bases from which to strike. One of the most important bases may be the tiny peninsula of Qatar. But as NPR's Steve Inskeep reports, that country is showing ambivalence about the possibility of war.
STEVE INSKEEP reporting:
This increasingly important US ally is the same country that recently sent its foreign minister to meet Saddam Hussein. Just two weeks ago, Sheik Hamad Jassem Al Thani traveled to Baghdad. He declared his country's opposition to military action. Today in Washington, the foreign minister said other Persian Gulf nations also oppose a US attack.
Sheik HAMAD JASSEM AL THANI (Foreign Minister, Qatar): We are, in Qatar, trying to avoid any military action in the gulf. But I could see that there is a big momentum going on, and we need to see how we can slow down this process.
INSKEEP: Sheik Hamad says he wants Saddam Hussein to avert war by accepting United Nations weapons inspectors inside Iraq.
But if diplomacy fails, the United States may need Qatar's help. The US military presence is expanding in this tiny nation just a short flight from Iraq. US forces occupy an air base in the desert, and commercial satellite photos show the US has built huge hangars and other buildings there in recent months. This fall, the commander of US forces in the Middle East will practice moving his headquarters there. General Tommy Franks and much of his staff will set up a temporary command post, just as Franks might consider doing during a real war. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad says that if asked for help, his country will bear in mind its close relations with the US.
Sheik HAMAD: Our relationship with the United States--it's not a secret relation in Qatar. As we always say--I don't think we like to have a secret wife or secret lover. If we have a relation, everybody will know it. If there is an action will be taken from Qatar, everybody will know about it.
INSKEEP: US military officials say they are expanding their presence in Qatar because they want to keep their options open. The most important US ally in the region says it will not allow its soil to be used in an attack against Iraq. Saudi Arabia's refusal means the US would depend on tiny nations along the Saudi border. Kuwait has become a major storage depot for US military equipment and also a base for US troops. Bahrain is the headquarters of the US Navy in the region. Both those countries, as well as Qatar, have welcomed US troops because they see the US military as protection. Rachel Bronson is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ms. RACHEL BRONSON (Council on Foreign Relations): Qatar is a very, very rich, very, very small state. They have been concerned with their neighbors, they have been concerned with Iran, who's just across the Persian Gulf, and they have very difficult relations with Saudi Arabia. So what Qatar gets is they get to thumb their nose at the rest of the region and say, `We can do whatever we want. But--look, there's nothing you can do to us, because we have all these Americans sitting here.'
INSKEEP: Yet all the Persian Gulf nations have publicly questioned the US course in recent months. They're not eager to see Arabs killed inside Iraq. They don't want to risk protests inside their own countries. And Bronson says the Bush administration has not helped US allies with its threats to go after Iraq alone.
Ms. BRONSON: It really is about making it easy for partners and allies to do what we need them to do, and so far we haven't done it. So far, the whole talk has been about, `We're going after Saddam, and you guys can come with us if you want.'
INSKEEP: Bronson says President Bush began to repair that damage today. He called on the United Nations to get involved and order Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction. That appeal to international law may make it easier for nations like Qatar to support the US even if in the end, the US starts the war that its allies dread. Steve Inskeep, NPR News, Washington.
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