The United States will build a Qatari Air Force facility in Idaho, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.
“Today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatar Emiri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho,” Hegseth told reporters.
The base “will be host to a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability,” he continued, adding that “It’s just another example of our partnership.”
Qatari-US relations
Qatar already hosts the Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military installation in the Middle East.
The announcement came as he thanked Qatar for its role in mediating a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The move comes as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order cementing American commitment to Qatari security. The executive order was signed at the end of September after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for a deadly airstrike against a building housing senior Hamas officials.
The order said that the “United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.”