


The Pentagon has agreed to host Qatari F-15s and pilots at a new facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Elmore County, Idaho, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday alongside his Qatari counterpart.
The secretary signed a letter of acceptance on Friday during his meeting at the Pentagon with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al Thani.
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“Today we’re announcing, we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho,” Hegseth said, adding that the United States will “host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increased lethality, interoperability. It’s just another example of our partnership.”
No foreign militaries have bases within the U.S., but some do have a small presence at U.S. bases. Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho already hosts Singaporean air force F-15SG fighter jets.
This is the latest example of the Trump administration’s increasingly friendly relationship with Qatar that has been on display since the start of his second term.
Last month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “assuring the security of the state of Qatar,” and now the U.S. will regard “any armed attack” on the country “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
The EO came after Israel carried out a military strike in Doha, the capital of Qatar, targeting senior Hamas leaders. The strike did not kill the intended targets, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ultimately apologized to the Qatari prime minister for killing a Qatari service member in the strike.
Trump, who was unhappy with the strike and unsuccessfully tried to have it called off, said shortly thereafter that there wouldn’t be any additional attacks on Qatari soil.
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Hegseth, alongside his counterpart, said on Friday that Qatar played a “substantial role from the beginning” as a mediator in Israel-Hamas negotiations. The two sides have agreed to a ceasefire and hostage exchange that is expected to be executed over the next couple of days.
The U.S. government accepted a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family in June, a gift that the president hopes to see transformed into the new Air Force One.