In another seemingly counter-intuitive development, trump approved the sale of $12 billion worth of F-15 jets to Qatar. Bloom berg reported, "Qatari Defense Minister Khalid Al-Attiyah and his U.S. counterpart, Jim Mattis, completed the $12 billion agreement on Wednesday in Washington, according to the Pentagon." The country has been accused by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Libya, and Egypt of harboring terrorist supporters who can freely operate inside their borders.
Does Qatar still harbor terrorists inside their borders?
According to multiple reports posted by Breitbart and Al Jazeera, the Qatari government had shut down a few Taliban offices in Doha.
The Taliban is a group that ardently supports terrorist activities and once actively worked with the Al Qaeda group during the war in Afghanistan. Though Taliban offices are already closed down, it is a reality that terrorist supporters have the freedom to operate inside Qatar under its present level of security.
Aside from this, a number of influential Qatari citizens, businessmen and politicians are allegedly linked to supporting terrorists abroad. Saudi Arabia is keen on placing an embargo on the entire country due to the fact that the only land route to Qatar is through Saudi land.
Why did the United States continue with its deal with Qatar?
According to a report, the weapons sale to Qatar will not go against Saudi's diplomatic "embargo" to suppress terrorist support groups operating within Qatari borders.
According to Qatar officials, the government is the one buying the weapons and not the terrorists. This sentiment is also shared by the U.S. Defense Department pointing out that the Qatari government is in need of weapons to combat terrorism.
The deal offered to Qatar by the United States is a massive arms sale agreement, which includes 36 American-built F-15 jets, which in turn provides 40,000 more jobs to Americans.
Trump is working to expand the weapons-making business in the hopes of creating more jobs for Americans. The move is also meant to deny countries like China and Russia taking over the arms manufacturing market.
How will the rest of the Arab coalition react to Trump's arms peddling in the Middle East?
The main objective for Trump is to create a ring of enemies for Iran.
The Arab coalition, which Trump initiated during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia made Iran the primary enemy. Currently, the United States has signed arms sale agreements with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in hopes to check Iran's influence over the region and to combat terrorism.
Qatar is a strategic area in the Persian gulf and controlling Qatar will give huge control over the entire region. The United States knows this, which is why 10,000 American soldiers are deployed in the country in one of the largest bases in the Middle East.
