Gift Diplomacy: How Qatar bought his way in America’s power circle
Qatar offers to provide $ 400 million Boeing 747 to the US government can be potentially used as an Air Force-Hussle, which has been investigated for decades of decades of strategy of Gulf Rajshahi to buy effects in every corner of American power: Military, academics, politics, media and business.Jet, called “A Palace in the Sky”, is only the most visible symbol of Qatar’s exterior ambition to embed itself in the elite class of Washington.why it matters
- The proposed jet is not before. In 2018, Turkish President Erdogan received a similar gift from Qatar. So was the late dictator of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh. Even Saddam Hussain’s Iraq once got a Qatari Jumbo Jet in 2000. Qatar gives the aircraft in the way other countries give medals.
- However, at stake is more than a luxury aircraft. The world’s third largest natural gas reserves funded a unique soft-power Blitz of the Gulf State of Gulf State, which transforms a desert nation of 300,000 citizens into one of the most influential foreign players in Washington.
- Consequently? In the Middle East, the US foreign policy currency and sovereignty, safety and ethics re -designed the growing chorus of questions.
- Qatar is now the largest foreign donor for American universities, which is performing more than $ 6.3 billion in schools such as Georgetown, Cornell and Northwestern.
- It spent more than $ 225 million on lobbying and PR in Washington in 2017, which was done by Israel in 2021 compared to Triple and about two-thirds of China’s expenditure.
- Its sovereign wealth fund controls an estimated $ 524 billion-colored over $ 1.5 million per citizen and involves ownership bets in American infrastructure, real estate and enterprise capital.
Big picture
- According to a free press report, Qatar’s leverage is not limited to elite politics. Its biggest long -term condition is education.
- The country has created an education city outside a magnificent campus of Doha-e-US University branches, which is completely funded by the Katri State.
- Qatar alone paid $ 760 million to the University of Georgetown and $ 1.8 billion to Cornell, with similar deals for Texas A \ M and Northwestern.
- Critics say the effect suggests: a white color depiction of class censorship, limited academic freedom, and Qatar’s political system.
- In 2023, Texas A&M announced that it would close its Doha campus by 2028 citing rising national-protection concerns. But Georgetown and others renewed their partnership, and continued to accept Katri’s money despite the increasing pressure of MPs and Prahari.
zoom in
- Qatar’s influence arrives from the Operation College premises to the capital hill, from the think tank to the golf resorts.
- According to a Wall Street Journal report, Al Udid Air Base, manufactured and paid by Qatar, at a cost of over $ 8 billion, has 10,000 American soldiers and the main Middle East Hub of Pentagon.
- The Pentagon sees the base as unavoidable. But there is a grip: Aadhaar cannot be used for any strike against Iran without the approval of Katri.
- In 2022, President Biden formally declared Qatar as “major non-NATO allies”, opening the door for more arms sale and joint operations. In the words of a former US General, “he has been an extraordinary partner.”
- The Katri government recently helped launch the Trump-branded luxury golf resort outside Doha, in which Eric Trump participated in the unveiling.
- Jared Kushner’s private equity funds received an investment of $ 1.5 billion from the United Qatiri-UAE Fund.
- The growing web of former US authorities and interiors, including the ex-CIA, defense and Trump campaign officials, are now on Qatar’s lobbying payroll.
- All of this contributes to a powerful dual image: one hand on one hand and a fund of Hamas and Islamist movements on the other.
What are they saying
- President Donald Trump has separated concerns about 747 gifts. “This is a beautiful aircraft for a beautiful price and what is wrong with it?” He said. “Only one stupid person” will turn it down. A senior American official echoed that feeling: “No wires are not engaged either contract or vested.”
- From Doha, Qatari Embassy spokesman Ali Al Ansari stressed, “Qatar does not stand to achieve anything in exchange for possible government-government transfer, calling it” a reflection of strong security relations “between the two countries.
- Nevertheless, critics have warned that Qatar’s cash-for-access models have serious risk.
- “Qatar has both ways. They play both sides of the fence,” a terrorism expert and professor at Georgetown University, Bruce Hoffman, told Free Press.
- “I could not think of a single dispute or struggle in the Middle East that the Qatters made better,” Sir John Jenkins **, focused on a former British diplomatic region, told the free press.
- Hofman said after 7 October, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis, the US Defense Officer warned him not to criticize Qatar publicly: “We cannot do anything that endanger the airport.”
between the lines
- Since 2017, Qatar spent at least $ 225 million on lobbying and public relations in Washington. The FARA filing of the government showed over 18 firms on its payroll, including prominent names of both political parties.
- Qatar’s relationship with Trump world has turned into a strategic pipeline for influence:
- Attorney General Palm Bandy, who signed 747 deals, previously represented Qatar in a DC lobbying firm, who used to bill $ 115,000 in a month.
- Trump’s confidant and Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witcoff had invested a failed New York rescued by Qatar in $ 623 million. He is now helping security deals with broker real estate and Doha.
- Susie Wils, Trump’s Chief of Staff, first led the Mercury Public Affairs, who worked for the Embassy of Qatar.
- The free press report states that the relationship is so deep that the sentinel has warned of violation of Eloluments Claus, which prevents federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments.
What will happen next
- Qatar’s profile only growing-and its critics further investigated the investigation from MPs and media.
- Republican has examined foreign gifts to universities, especially focusing on how Katri’s money can shape the syllabus related to Israel amidst the Gaza war.
- Qatar’s media arm Al Jazira has set fire to the leaders of Hamas to provide platforms, and the 2020 DOJ order remains unresolved to register it as a foreign agent.
- Lobbing revelations show increasing contact with top MPs, including Senator Lindsay Graham, who has reversed the previous criticism and now Qatar calls a “solution more than the problem”.
- And money keeps flowing. Trump White House’s 2024 fact sheet claims the economic commitment of $ 1.2 trillion from Qatar, including the purchase of 210 Boeing jets and the purchase of billions in defense and energy deals that “create more than 1 million American jobs”.
(With input from agencies)
