Qatar denies report that it’s reevaluating partnership with US after Israeli strike in Doha

Qatar rejects a report in Axios that in the wake of Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Qatar will reevaluate its security partnership with Washington “and maybe find some other partners” who can protect the Gulf emirate.

In a statement, Doha calls the claim “categorically false,” and “a clear and failed attempt to drive a wedge between Qatar and the US by those who benefit from chaos in the region and oppose peace.”

“The Qatar-US security and defense partnership is stronger than ever and continues to grow,” says Qatar’s International Media Office. “Our two countries have supported each other for many years, and we will continue working together to promote global peace and stability.”

The emirate hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, and has served as the key Arab mediator for Washington on a range of complex issues. In 2022, then-US president Joe Biden named Qatar as a “major non-NATO ally.”

In an account similar to the Axios report, a diplomatic source told The Times of Israel yesterday that a senior Qatari official called Doha’s partnership with the US into question during a conversation Witkoff following Israel’s strike in Doha.

The senior Qatari official pointed to both the Israeli strike yesterday and a June 2025 Iranian strike targeting a US military base in Qatar and lamented that the US has failed to protect his country, the source said.