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While U.S. President Donald Trump has tweeted and made comments that can be seen as siding against Qatar, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has traveled to Doha to offer his support. The Trump administration also agreed to an in-the-works sale of F-15 fighter jets to Qatar for $12 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani\u2019s visit to the base on Sept. 11 added new tension. He posed with troops in front of warplanes, some American-made, and met with senior U.S. officials. One photograph at the base released by state media showed a stenciled poster of Sheikh Tamim, an image now seen across Doha as a sign of support for the ruler amid the boycott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheikh Tamim and the Americans \u201creviewed the joint Qatari-U.S. military defense cooperation, and the mutual cooperation between the two countries in combating terrorism,\u201d a statement about the visit on the state-run Qatar News Agency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a visit. They talked about how things were going and there were some photo opportunities and they left,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt was not particularly substantive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. bases routinely welcome leaders of their host countries, Thomas said. Asked about the Sheikh Tamim poster, he said it is normal for host nations to put up their own nationalistic banners on their side of bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The al-Udeid visit came just ahead of Sheikh Tamim\u2019s first trip abroad since the crisis began. The trip to Turkey and Germany provides a way for him to show his rule is secure. Sheikh Tamim\u2019s father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, launched a palace coup in 1995 while his own father was abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pentagon has developed contingency plans for al-Udeid operations, but that\u2019s a normal part of war planning, Thomas said. He said the U.S. military regularly maintained relationships with host nations amid turbulent times, referencing tensions with Egypt in the years since its 2011 Arab Spring uprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got plans for everything. … We\u2019ll do what we need to do to continue the fight,\u201d the colonel said. \u201cBut right now, it\u2019s not in the realm of significant possibilities that we\u2019ll have to close or curtail anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Qatar\u2019s emir is persona non grata to four U.S.-allied Arab states that accuse his wealthy Gulf nation of sponsoring extremists, but he recently received a warm welcome at the sprawling military base his troops share with thousands of American soldiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,13,16,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5197],"class_list":["post-43010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"IWB6BPAY2NGYFKBQGGDBTSARSU","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/09\/14\/qatar-diplomatic-crisis-engulfs-a-major-us-military-base\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n