The United States will host a new Qatari Air Force facility at a base in Idaho, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced during a meeting with the nation’s deputy minister of defense on Friday.
The facility is to be located at Mountain Home Air Force Base and will host Qatari pilots and aircraft, Hegseth said during a joint conference with Qatari Deputy Defense Minister Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The base has also hosted other foreign militaries for training purposes in the past, including the Singaporean Air Force, according to CBS News.
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15’s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability, it’s just another example of our partnership,” Hegseth said during the meeting. “And I hope you know, Your Excellency, that you can count on us.”
Hegseth acknowledged during the announcement that Qatar was a major player in the Hamas ceasefire deal, saying the nation played a “core part” in the deal’s initial success. It is unclear if the Air Force facility’s construction was expressly conditional on the outcome of the ceasefire deal.
President Donald Trump gave a NATO-style guarantee to Qatari security in early October, regarding any attack on the nation as a “threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
Many critics over the last decade have worried about the seeming novel influence of Qatari interests in the United States, with former and current U.S. officials offering their services to the nation. Trump’s acceptance of a massive gifted private jet to replace Air Force One in May stirred considerable controversy at the time among liberals and conservatives alike.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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