Qatar, host of the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, has been working to deepen ties with Trump in his second term after falling on the wrong side of the U.S. president when he was first in office. For some 40 years, Qatar’s “core motivation has always been their concern and their fear that Saudi and the UAE have designs on it and they saw the U.S. as the guarantor of their independence,” said Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. diplomat with extensive experience in the Gulf. Trump's move to lift sanctions and bring Syria into the Abraham accords could help hold Syria's former allies, Iran and Russia, at a distance as the new government builds diplomatic and financial ties with the region and the West.
Published at: 2025-05-14 21:43:37
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