WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that Qatar will be allowed to build an air force facility at Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho that will house F-15 fighter jets and pilots.

The announcement comes soon after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to defend the Gulf Arab state against attacks, following Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha.

“We’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon, with Qatari Defence Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at his side.

“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training” as well as “increase lethality, interoperability,” he said.

Activist blasts Pentagon over planned ‘military base’

“It’s just another example of our partnership. And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.” The Idaho base currently also hosts a fighter jet squadron from Singapore, according to its website.

Hegseth also thanked Qatar for its “substantial role” as a mediator in the talks that led to a truce and ‘hostage-prisoner’ swap deal between Israel and Hamas, and its assistance in securing the release of a US citizen from Afghanistan.

The Qatari minister hailed the “strong, enduring partnership” and “deep defence relationship” shared by the two countries.

The Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is Washington’s largest military facility in the Middle East. Trump’s close relationship with the leaders of Qatar has raised eyebrows, especially over its gift to the US president of a Boeing 747 to be used as Air Force One.

Hegseth, who never said it was a base, later wrote on the platform: “Qatar will not have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”

Activist blasts facility

Far-right activist Laura Loomer slammed President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday over its deepening defense ties with Qatar and made false accusations that spread on social media that the Pentagon was giving it a military base on US soil.

A self-proclaimed “Islamo­phobe” who for years argued the Sept 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job, Loomer has a history of provocative and self-promotional actions, including handcuffing herself to Twitter’s headquarters in New York in 2018 after the platform banned her for hate speech.

Shortly after the announcement, Loomer said she did not think she would vote in next year’s mid-term elections. “Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans,” Loomer wrote on X.

She posted a clip of Trump speaking in 2017, when he accused Qatar of historically funding terrorism “at a very high level.” In the wake of her remarks, Hegseth posted on X: “To be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”

With 1.8 million followers on X and her own weekly programme that draws a large audience, Loomer can say she speaks for many of the MAGA faithful and influences their views of the Trump administration.

In April, Trump fired US General Timothy Haugh, who was the director of the National Security Agency and head of US Cyber Command. The New York Times reported that Loomer had called for his ouster.

Training pilots on F-15s

The facility, which has been in discussions for years, would support Qatar’s plans to train pilots on 12 F-15 fighter jets that the country is buying and which would be located there, a US official said. The facility would include hangars to shield the aircraft from the elements and a squadron operations building for the pilots, the official said.

The arrangement, which the official said was in line with those agreed with other US allies, would result in the facility being built by local contractors under US military supervision and funded by Qatar. Pilots from Singapore already train at the US base.

Qatars embassy spokesperson said the facility in Idaho would not be a Qatari air base. Qatar has made an initial 10-year commitment to construct and maintain a dedicated facility within an existing US air base, intended for advanced training and to enhance interoperability, Ali Al-Ansari said in a statement. He said the arrangement was similar to existing programmes the US has with other international allies.

Qatar is a US security partner and host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Middle East. It acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in talks between Israel and Hamas.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2025