Biden should designate Qatar a terror sponsor, not a major non-NATO ally

President Joe Biden will soon designate the gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar as a major non-NATO ally.

While Qatar hosts the Al Udeid Air Base where U.S. Central Command maintains its forward headquarters, it treats the U.S. presence more as a “get out of jail free card” than as a commitment to countering terror. Qatar’s promoting of radical Islamist groups and partnering with other regimes that are destabilizing the region increased tremendously after the Clinton and Bush administrations began to invest in the airfield heavily.

It is not clear why Qatar and why now. After all, to compare the balance sheet between Qatar’s assets and its liabilities would be to conclude that it deserves designation, not as a major non-NATO ally, but rather as a state sponsor of terror.