DOHA, Qatar — Standing beside the ice skating rink at the center of the largest indoor shopping mall in the Persian Gulf region, Yousuf Haidar proudly explains what he sees happening around him.
"Qatar is joining the modern age," said Haidar, 40, a furniture store manager on a shopping spree with his family. "The world is finally learning about Qatar."
If the U.S. invades Iraq, the world will get a chance to learn a great deal about this once-isolated emirate, a moderate, pro-Western ally in a region conflicted about how to deal with the expected war.
Qatar is perhaps best known as the home of Al Jazeera, the upstart, sometimes biased, often-controversial pan-Arab TV network financed by the nation's ruling family. For five years, the station has attracted an audience of 30 million. It has provided a soapbox for the family's views, which include support for a free press and rapprochement with Israel.
Though neighboring nations are reluctant to be seen as overly friendly with the United States, Qatar's supreme ruler, Sheik Hamad ibn Khalifa al Thani, has put out the welcome mat for the American military, its troops, its heavy bombers and its command and control structure. Qatar has approved plans to greatly expand Al Udeid Air Base, outside Doha, the capital, a probable nerve center in the event of an attack on Iraq.
The new closeness between the U.S. and Qatar is a marriage made of considerable convenience even if it does annoy neighboring Saudi Arabia, whose Prince Sultan Air Base has previously been the major U.S. outpost in the region.
Qatar has only a tiny army and a dozen French-made fighter jets. By inviting the U.S. military, the nation gets the kind of security that it feels is necessary for economic growth in an unstable region.
The U.S. gets a foil to Saudi Arabia, which has criticized President Bush's go-it-alone rhetoric about Iraq and wants a strong U.N. resolution before allowing air sorties against Baghdad.
"Only the United States can balance the powers in this region and provide us with stability," said Hassan M. Saleh Ansari, director of the Gulf Studies Center at the 9,000-student University of Qatar. "This is a relationship that works for both sides."
S. Rob Sobhani, adjunct professor of international relations at Georgetown University, said the Qatari leadership could be hailed throughout the Arab world if its bases are used by the U.S. for a quick knockdown of Saddam Hussein, with few casualties. That acclaim, he said, would bring more respect for Hamad's vision of a pluralistic, pro-Western future.
