Hamidreza Kazemi, in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said: Recently, Qatar signed a “strategic partnership” agreement with the United States, and other Arab countries in the region are also trying to have such an agreement with the United States, under which an attack on these countries would be considered equivalent to an attack on the United States. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries seeking to include this clause in a major treaty it wants to sign with the United States. But the Americans have not yet given the green light regarding this matter.
According to Kazemi, even in the text of the U.S. security agreement with Bahrain, signed two years ago, it is stated that if Bahrain is attacked, the leaders of the two countries will coordinate on joint actions at the first opportunity; meaning the interpretation “equivalent to an attack on the United States” was not used.
Referring to the new U.S. pact with Qatar, which states that “an attack on Qatar is a threat to U.S. strategic interests,” this expert said: “The interpretation of this phrase is that if Qatar is attacked, it will also be considered an attack on the United States.”
In response to the question of why the Qatar-U.S. agreement has received so much media attention, he explained: “Given that the Israeli regime recently attacked Qatar, the United States now wants to show that with such an agreement, it guarantees Qatar’s security so that it is not targeted by such attacks again, and also to persuade the Qataris to continue cooperation.”
In response to the question of why persuading Qatar is important for Washington, Kazemi said: “Qatar’s political importance for the United States lies in its mediation on important dossiers such as the Afghanistan dossier, the Iran dossier, and finally the Palestine dossier.”
He added, “In all three dossiers, the Americans need Qatar’s cooperation as a political arm. This is especially important in Afghanistan.”
Kazemi added: “Probably with this agreement, the United States also wants to warn Iran not to attack the U.S. base at Al Udeid again.”
He added, “It should be noted that Al Udeid is a very important base. Perhaps after Iran’s attack on Al Udeid, efforts were made to downplay the value of that attack. Still, the mentioned attack was a very important operationally, because the radars and communication facilities at Al Udeid can be described as the eyes of the United States in the Persian Gulf and West Asia.”
According to the expert, this agreement is of great importance both militarily and politically, and the United States has given Qatar such a guarantee to ensure the continuation of its political cooperation and military activities in the region.
According to the expert, of course, Iran takes political considerations into account regarding the countries along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf. But it must be considered that when a country faces a national security issue, political considerations become secondary.