U.S., Qatar Sign Air Base Accord
DOHA, Qatar — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Qatar's foreign minister signed an agreement Wednesday giving American armed forces broader and more permanent access to a new $1-billion air base just 700 miles from Baghdad.
Beneath crystal chandeliers in a palace of Florentine marble and porcelain, Rumsfeld and Sheik Hamad Jassim ibn Jaber al Thani announced a pact that deepens America's military alliance with this strategic, energy-rich Persian Gulf state. They also sought to distance the agreement from America's mounting war exercises in the region and tough rhetoric aimed at Iraq.
"The agreement we have signed today is not connected to Iraq. It is an agreement that has been under discussion for many, many weeks and months," Rumsfeld said. "It is simply the latest element in a defense cooperation between our two countries, and it is a good one and one that we are very pleased with, but I think it would be a mistake to connect it to Iraq."
American forces have been using Al Udeid Air Base, which is likely to play a key role in any U.S. attack on Iraq, for months under a decade-old defense agreement. That pact was updated two years ago to include the new base.
The Qatar Emiri Air Force owns and operates the base. The Qatari government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the facility mainly to accommodate an expanded U.S. military presence. More than 5,000 U.S. personnel are stationed at Al Udeid and at least three other military bases in Qatar, including Camp As Sayliyah.
In detailing the classified agreement, Rumsfeld said only that it further expands "quality of life" and technology at U.S. installations -- buzzwords, analysts said, for a more permanent high-tech military presence 20 miles southwest of Doha, the capital.
The timing of the signing ceremony dovetailed with war games that Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in the region, is running from a new mobile forward headquarters at Camp As Sayliyah. Franks attended the ceremony.
It also coincides with U.S. Army live-fire exercises near the Iraqi border in northern Kuwait.
Most Arab analysts here said the new pact was bound to send another strong signal to Baghdad, which traditionally has maintained close personal and diplomatic ties to Qatar and members of its ruling family.
