WikiLeaks cables: Qatar okays use of airbase for U.S. attack on Iran
Gulf state agreed partially to fund base’s upkeep, as long as U.S. supports Qatar’s continued resource mining.
By Jack Khoury
Qatar agreed to allow the United States to use a base on Qatari soil to bomb Iran, according to a report in the newspaper Al-Arabiya based on secret diplomatic cables published by the website WikiLeaks.
Qatar also agreed to pay 60 percent of the upkeep costs for the Al-Udeid airbase, which has already been used by the U.S. military to launch air sorties over Iraq.
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The Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, October 27, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
Although Qatar backed the elimination of the Iranian offensive capability by military means, Qatar reportedly agreed to support a strike only in return for U.S. guarantees that operations at the South Pars natural gas field, owned jointly by Qatar and Iran, would not be threatened.
Another WikiLeaks document quoted Mossad Chief Meir Dagan characterizing Qatar as “problematic” and its leader as “annoying everyone”. According to Dagan, Qatar is trying to cozy up to everyone – Syria, Iran and Hamas – in an attempt to beef up its security.
“I think that you should remove your bases from [Qatar],” Dagan told American diplomats, according to the WikiLeaks document, “[The Qataris] owe their security to the presence of the Americans].”
WarSclerotic 
December 1, 2010 at 2:58 AM
WHEN THE PLAN TO BOMB IRAN INTO SUBMISSION COMES TO PASS AS A REALITY IF SO, THENN WE SHOULD HAVE THE SUPPORT FROM OTHER ARAMAND MUSLIM NATIONS IN THE GULF AS WELL AS TURKISH AND KURDISH BASES TOO. THIS WOULD SUPPORT A MORE ROBUST EVENT AND STRING THE HEZBOLLAH AND HAMAS FIGHTERS OUT WAY TO FAR TO BE EFFECTIVE AGAINST ISRAEL OR AMERICAN, AND N.A.T.O. FORCES TOO THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR COMMITTEE HAS MET WITHOUT EVEN PASSING A VOTE ON THIS ONE FOR THEEIR GAME IS OVER UNLESS THEY CAN RUN ON THEIR OWN RECONNOSANCE TILL THEY HAVE A NUCLEAR DEVICE WHICH WE CANNOT FORGET CHINESE INTERVENTIONS AND THE KOREAN ISSUESAS THEY WILL DIVERT AYYENTION AWAY FROM IRAN AND SYRIA TO BRING WITH A FOCUS ON NORTH KOREA WHICH HAS LITERALY BEEN DWARFED BY THIS WHOLE REPORTING FRENZI ON WIKILEAKS.