The Gulf Arab monarchies have been left reeling after the United States, their decades-long security guarantor, seemingly did nothing to prevent Tuesday’s unprecedented Israeli airstrikes on Qatar, home to the region’s largest American military base.
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Describing the attack as a “pivotal moment” for the Gulf, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani called for a collective regional response after Israeli jets targeted Hamas negotiators in Doha.
The strikes have exposed a deepening rift between Qatar and Washington at a time of acute regional volatility.
According to the White House, US Central Command, which is stationed at the US$8 billion Al-Udeid Air Base that Doha funded, alerted Qatari authorities after detecting Israeli warplanes headed towards the capital.
But Prime Minister Thani forcefully pushed back against this assertion, telling reporters at a late-night press conference on Tuesday that he was not contacted by US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, until 10 minutes after the strikes began – while explosions were still echoing across Doha.
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“We believe that today we have reached a pivotal moment,” Thani said. “There must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions.”