Overview
- President Trump signed an executive order committing the United States to treat attacks on Qatar as threats to U.S. security, the first publicly stated U.S. defense guarantee for a Middle East country.
- The decision followed Israel’s Sept. 9 airstrike in Doha targeting Hamas figures that hit a residential building and killed at least one Qatari citizen.
- Trump pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize to Qatar and pledge no repeat of such operations during an Oval Office call with Qatar’s leader.
- Qatar leveraged the crisis to help secure a Gaza ceasefire and is pursuing multiple mediations globally, while the truce remains fragile and the next phase, including Hamas disarmament, is unresolved.
- Gulf states moved to tighten coordination through the GCC with expanded intelligence sharing and defense planning, as analysts question the legal and strategic implications of the U.S. guarantee and Israeli sources say some in Mossad opposed the Doha strike.