The United States reached an agreement to extend the military presence at Al Udeid base in Qatar for another ten years

On Tuesday the United States had reached an agreement to extend its military presence at Al Udeid base in Qatar for another ten years.

The US presence at Al Udeid Air Base, which is located in the desert southwest of the Qatari capital, Doha, hosts the largest US military facility in the Middle East.

According to CNN which was the first to report the news, the US Department of Defense hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment.

Qatar, the small Gulf state has played a key role in mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials regarding the war in Gaza and the release of hostages captured by the Palestinian factions, most notably Hamas movement in the attack of October 7, which also resulted the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

The US President Joe Biden has been speaking regularly with the Emir of Qatar since October 7 about securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and boosting aid to Gaza, as the Israeli attack since the Hamas attack has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza.

There was also criticism of Qatar by some in the US Congress due to the presence of Hamas in the country.

On October 16, a bipartisan group of 113 US lawmakers sent a letter to Biden asking him to put pressure on countries that support Hamas, including Qatar.

Qatar is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States, a designation the United States gives to close non-NATO allies who have strategic working relationships with the US military.

Qatar has also been a conduit for US dialogue with the Taliban since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and played a role in brokering deals that led in late 2023 to Venezuela and Iran releasing some Americans in a prisoner exchange.