Who Was Trump Signalling with his EO Extending Protection to Qatar?

Peloni:  Recall further that the real power behind Iran is China.  When Qatar moved towards the US for protections it did not receive while remaining in the Chinese sphere of influence, ie allied with Iran, the vast wealth of Qatar became a potential target in any upcoming conflict between the Israel and Iran, but only from Iran, not Israel.

Peloni 

Image created via AI

There is a certain incoherence about the belief that an US executive order protecting Qatar was issued in relation to preventing any threat of attack from Israel.  Indeed, is it a reasonable conclusion that the US would need a formal declarative arrangement with Qatar to keep the Israelis from attacking the gulf state?  Notably, if there was any doubt about Israel’s deference to the US, we might recall that Bibi called off the final attack of the 12 Day War in complete deference to Trump’s statement that he do so.  We might recall further that it is being reported that Israel’s attack on Qatar was actually conducted with “quiet American approval,” as stated by Amit Segal among others.

So if Israel’s attack on Qatar was with American approval, and Israel forewent an attack during its war on Iran in which the attack was well earned at the time, why would anyone expect that Trump would need a formal policy statement aligning American and Qatari defense interests as one, just to prevent Israel from conducting further attacks on Qatari soil?  In fact, he wouldn’t.

Setting this aside for the moment, we should also note that Qatar’s previous protector had been Iran who is itself aligned with China against the US.  Yet, following the significant depletion of Iranian military assets by Israeli attacks, both inside and outside of Iran, the Mullahs would appear to be something of a poor champion for Qatar, whose need of a reliable defender in the region was quite significant due to their reputation of deception and .  Hence, Qatar’s obvious alternative choice to the battle-worn Iranian sphere of protection was to be found to lie with the Americans, which was certified by the Executive Order assuring Qatari security.

With all of this in mind, since it is still unreasonable to believe that Qatar required such a statement of safety from America as it applies to Israel, and the fact that Israel recently apologized for its attack on Qatar’s Hamas guests, who might Trump have been signaling with his announcement of an executive order securing Qatar’s safety?

I think everything becomes more clear when reading the following tweet by Shlomo Filber,

https://x.com/filbers/status/1973369513484648818

Filber’s tweet is in Hebrew, so here is a machine translation:

“Trump intends to reveal in the near future his entire expanded “Deal of the Century” plan that will change the global interests map, part of it was revealed this week.

“* The plan will affect Russia and its resources, China and the trade it conducts with the West, Iran which is angry about the sanctions against it. Dramatic global tension.

“* The front line between the US and Europe and Russia in the north is Ukraine, in the south it is the Persian Gulf. The main base of the US army in the region is located in Qatar, and it has already been bombed by Iran.

“* For two weeks now, the US army has been preparing for tension that may occur due to the political events. This week Trump gathered the generals from all over the world for a briefing, an aircraft carrier is entering the Mediterranean, and the US is increasing its fleet of aerial refueling tankers in the Gulf.

“And after all this, the “political commentator” of Israel’s main television channel explains to you Israelis that Trump signed an unusual presidential order to protect Qatar from attack – from … Netanyahu and Israel.

“This is the level!”

Notably, it was an unanswered Iranian attack on Qatar which marked the end of the recent 12 Day War against Iran, and there are a number of reports of American warplanes being currently flown into Qatar, supportive of what Filber shares.

Hence, what we can grasp from Filber’s comment is that the threat which Trump was signaling the extension of US protection to Qatar was actually Qatar’s former allies of Iran and China, not America’s well established and ongoing ally, Israel, for which no formal threat would have been needed.

Additionally, we should appreciate further that Israel’s strike on Qatar demonstrated the weakness, better described as absence, of Iran’s protection of Qatar.  Indeed, the lack of any response from Iran further revealed Tehran’s impotence, while also exposing Qatar’s defenseless status in a region brimmed full with enemies.  This was the moment in which Washington, while playing a pivotal role in initiating this demonstration of Qatari weakness, offered Qatar the perfect solution to its vulnerabilities in the region, namely, by extending the protection of US security guarantees, something which has been unprecedented in the region.

Perhaps Washington believes its new role as Qatar’s new regional protector will gain it the ability to leverage quiet reforms to Qatar’s anti-American, anti-Western and antisemitic exploitation throughout the West.  If this is so, Washington will find that the Muslim Brotherhood ideology does not easily accept reform, particularly when such instructions come from the very seat of power of the Western infidels, which is how Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood perceive Washington to be.