Doha – Mubasher: Qatar said it signed an agreement in Washington to buy 36 F-15 jets from the US, worth $12 billion, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing the Pentagon.
The sale “will give Qatar a state of the art capability and increase security cooperation and interoperability between the US and Qatar,” the Defense Department said in a statement.
Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said the deal would create 60,000 jobs in 42 states across the US, which will decrease the burden on the US forces.
It added that the F-15 deal will lead to “closer strategic collaboration in our fight to counter violent extremism and promote peace and stability in our region and beyond.”
This sale shows the complicated situation in which Trump’s administration finds itself as it is forced to balance its focus on fighting terrorism against regional rivalries between key allies, Bloomberg reported, citing tensions between the two countries after US President Donald Trump backed the Saudi-led coalition against Qatar.
Commenting on the Pentagon announcement, Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University in Washington, said that the situation was “confusing, and the worst thing you want to do in a heated, delicate situation like this is to give mixed messages.”
“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said in a speech at the White House last week.
“We encourage all our partners in the region to work towards common solutions that enable regional security,” US Air Forces Central Command spokesman lieutenant colonel Damien Pickart said in a statement when the crisis began.
“Qatar is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Persian Gulf region,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a report last year.
