US presence in Gulf 'not enough' for security, Qatari official says

US presence in Gulf 'not enough' for security, Qatari official says Submitted by MEE staff on Mon, 09/07/2026 - 17:12 Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari seemed to encourage a diversification away from sole reliance on Washington Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, attends a session at the Hili Forum 2026 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 7 September 2026 (Fadel Senna/AFP) Off Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari on Monday appeared to indicate that the presence of US forces in the Gulf is no longer the protective shield it was once believed to be. Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Arab world, which is also the regional headquarters for US Central Command. It has borne the brunt of repeated Iranian retaliatory attacks for the US- Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, which began on 28 February. "We need to realise in the Gulf that having international forces in the region, having a strategic alliance with the United States, is very important, but is not enough," he said during the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi, UAE. "Self-sufficiency when it comes to security is the only way forward. Yes, we need our partners. Yes, we need our allies. But we cannot depend on them alone for our security," he added. His comments come as Avril Haines, the former US director of national intelligence under President Joe Biden, told the Financial Times Festival over the weekend that a reduction of the US footprint in the region would spell more trouble than remaining fully engaged. "Honestly, when you try to pull away from it, and you sort of minimise to the greatest degree your resource allocation, often it doesn’t work out well, is what you see," Haines said. Thousands of US military and embassy personnel were evacuated from the Gulf earlier this year as Iran ramped up its retaliation against US assets and energy infrastructure in the region. It's unclear whether they will all return. Qatar-Iran ties In an interview with the Emirati paper, The National, Ansari acknowledged that rebuilding trust with Iran will take time, but it remains necessary because Iran will always be a neighbour. "As we have found peace and harmony with all of the nationalities living in our countries, we will for sure find a way of living next to Iran," he said. Vance: US investigating strike on Iran wedding 'very fully' Read More » "Most of the responsibility for that lies on the Iranian side – in exercising good neighbourly relations and realising that they are living next to neighbours, not enemies, and that using military pressure or any other means of pressure will not deliver the results they seek for the people they should be working for," he added. "Our goal is to extend our hands when the time is right, and at the same time to keep the deterrence and show very clearly, as we have shown during this crisis, that we are able to defend ourselves." Despite reassurances for months from US President Donald Trump that the conflict - which his administration does not want to label a "war" - will be over "soon", Ansari warned that its days must be numbered. "The world cannot afford for this conflict to continue. The world cannot afford for the Strait of Hormuz to remain closed. Our region cannot afford for missiles to go back and forth across the Gulf," he said. Last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent alluded to the strait as becoming "worthless" in two years' time, when oil pipelines are constructed to bypass it. But Ansari insisted the waterway will remain a vital passage regardless of the alternatives being devised around it. "The Strait of Hormuz has been a crossroad for international trade for millennia. No one action or situation will change that," Ansari told The National. He also disagreed with Washington's "Operation Economic Outcast" strategy of ratcheting up sanctions on Iran to "asphyxiate" it, as Bessent had described. "We have seen economic sanctions in Iraq, Libya and other countries,” Ansari said. "It has never delivered a straightforward desired outcome. For us, a straightforward desired outcome will happen" at the negotiation table, he added. GCC News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0