SAUDI ARABIA: The US is set to shift its Middle East aerial command and control centre from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, writes Michael Jansen in Nicosia.
The move, anticipated for many months, is expected to take place in the coming week, the New York Times reported yesterday.
The redeployment will not only involve airforce units at Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan base but also most of the estimated 10,000 troops said to be based in the kingdom.
The US air war on Iraq was conducted from al-Udeid base in Qatar because Saudi Arabia would not permit military action to be launched from its territory. Al-Udeid, built quickly in the run-up to the war, has the longest runways in the region as well as the very latest high-tech equipment.
The prosperous, relatively liberal emirate of Qatar is also a far more congenial place to live for US military personnel. Today, Qataris are voting on a constitution establishing a form of local democracy without political parties.
US military commanders have long urged the Pentagon to find a substitute for the Prince Sultan base, where relations between US and Saudi personnel have been strained for several years. Since 1996 there have been several bomb attacks against US servicemen by Saudis resentful of Washington's policies in the Gulf and the occupied Palestinian territories.
While the kingdom granted the US the right to use the state-of-the-art command and control facilities at the base for the offensive in Afghanistan, usage was greatly circumscribed during the war on Iraq.