Qatar

General information
 

Internal situation

According to a contributor to 'The Persian Gulf States (edited by Alvin Cottrell, 1980): "In Qatar, the ruling Al Thani family have settled entire nomadic tribes around their numerous palaces, subsidising them and having them available to help defend the regime if necessary".

In 1995, following a bloodless coup, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa to power. The US was the first state to recognise the new Emir. Compared to its neighbours, Qatar is parsimonious with its foreign arms purchases. According to US government figures, Qatar spent $700 million on arms between 1994 and 1997 and $1.2 billion from 1998 to 2001 - all from Western Europe.

The U.S. State Department published a report on Qatar in Feburary 2000, and noted severe restrictions on freedom of assembly and association:

• the Government severely limits freedom of assembly. The Government does not allow political demonstrations.
• the Government severely limits freedom of association. The Government does not allow political parties or membership in international professional organizations critical of the Government or of any other Arab government. Private social, sports, trade, professional, and cultural societies must be registered with the Government. Security forces monitor the activities of such groups.

UK Arms Sales

The total value of Standard Individual Export Licence applications (SIELs - as opposed to Open licences, which are ongoing) for which a licence was issued in 2001 is £1.5m. Of these 34 involved items on the Military List.

The list includes: components for combat helicopters; components for general purpose machine guns, grenade launchers, military aero-engines, military training aircraft, naval radar, submachine guns; equipment for the use of chemical agent detection equipment; equipment for the use of general purpose machine guns and submachine guns; equipment for use of grenade launchers; general military aircraft components; grenade launchers; semiautomatic pistols; shotguns; small arms ammunition; submachine guns; toxic chemical precursors.

The total value of exported goods (deliveries) for 2001 (Table 4 of the Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2001) was £3.59m.

In 1996 the Qatar and UK governments signed an agreement on a defence equipment package. The same year, Qatar signed a £500 million with BAe for ships, aircraft and armoured vehicles.

The then Defence Secretary, Michael Portillo, said he had offered a comprehensive Gulf security proposal to Qatar. In 1997 negotiations continued concerning an $833 million 'revolving credit package', whereby Qatar is offered credit and pays it off in crude oil. On the 11th September, 2002, Michael Portillo was appointed to the board of BAe Systems as a non-executive director. He was appointed to improve their relations with the Ministry of Defence.

In 2000, it was discovered that payments of over £100 million were being held in Jersey-based accounts, called the Havana and Yaheeb trusts, for the benefit of the Qatar Foreign Secretary, Sheik Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani, the Emir's uncle. They were being used to purchase real estate and hotels. BAe were associated with at least one payment in to these accounts, for £7 million. In June of this year Jersey's attorney-general announced he was dropping the investigation. According to the Observer newspaper, "...the Foreign Office met Jersey authorities to 'explain' the damage the investigation was having on relations. They are said to have pointed out the risk of losing trade and the importance of Qatar as a strategic ally in the 'war against terrorism' " (9/6/02).

It is thought to be the case that payments from European arm's manufacturers also reached these accounts.

In the early 1990s, and traditionally, France was Qatar's main arms supplier. They originally built the Al Udaid airbase, at a cost of $211 million. In 1994 they completed deals, signed by the then French Defence Minister, Francois Leotard, for twelve Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighters (worth around $1.3 billion), packaged with the Matra Apache stand-off weapon (with a range of 150km) and the Matra Mica medium-range air-to-air missile. As well as Matra Defense and Dassault Aviation, Thomson-CSF (radar and electronics), SNEC-MA (engines and electronics), SAGEM, Sextant Avionique, SFIM and Intertechnique (all electronics) were all involved in the package. The first three Mirages were delivered in 1997. Qatar also has French AMX-30 tanks (in 1998 they were given 10 surplus tanks to go with the 34 which Qatar bought), Alpha Jet trainers, Gazelle combat helicopters and VAB light armoured vehicles.

To return to the 1996 British deal:

• the UK shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft delivered the last of four Barzan-class fast attack aircraft in 1998 - for the Qatar Emiri Navy. Each carries eight Exocet anti-ship missiles.
• 40 Piranha II armoured vehicles have been delivered, made by Alvis PLC (once GKN Defence) in the UK. For some reason these are often referred to as personnel carriers, but they can carry as few as two people - these are armed with Cockerill MK8 90mm guns.
• As to the rest of the order - a lot of it seems to have disappeared through more and further negotiations. As recently as July this year Qatar announced that it may still purchase six Hawk trainer aircraft from BAe, but Qatar has frozen its long-standing defence procurement programs.

Qatar also provides an example of a spontaneous change in end use for weapons - and illustrates the difficulty in legislating for this. In 2000 Qatar acted as broker for £5 million pounds' worth of arms destined for Algeria - a country with an atrocious record of violence between Islamicists and the state. A disgruntled Muslim in the Qatar government leaked the details of Algerian end-use, though the negotiation was with the Qatar armed forces. Qatar stated that the 20 Land Rover Defender rapid deployment vehicles, 40 other Land Rovers and 500 night vision sights were to be a gift to Algeria.

The US and the 'war on terror'

Qatar is currently receiving attention because the US has an airbase there at al-Udeid, and it is increasing and using its capacity. According to The Guardian the airbase is "...designed to provide shelter against biological and chemical attacks" and has one of the longest runways in the Middle East. This makes Qatar a political and military resource, as far as the US pursuing "regime change" in Iraq goes.

Reasonably and cautiously enough, in July of this year, Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs stated of the US Iraqi policy: "If Washington ever approaches Qatar to participate in a war against Iraq, we would want to know the real objectives of the war and to have solid assurances that Iraq's unity would be maintained and no chaos would result from the campaign."

Qatar's recent pronouncement - on August 25th 2002 - stated that they would not be willing to be used as a base for any attack on Iraq.

US troops use the al-Udeid air base, following a bilateral defence co-operation agreement signed in 1992. According to Defense News (8-14th July, 2002), a Qatar official said al-Udeid will host a large command-and-control centre and an undisclosed number of US Air Force squadrons. Apparently much equipment has recently been ferried from US bases in Saudi Arabia. Recent satellite images on globalsecurity.org show construction work and air-to-air refuelling craft being stationed there between January and June 2002.

Qatar also makes an appearance on the Landmine Monitor website. They signed the Mine Ban Treaty in April 1999. But Landmine Monitor discovered that the United States has antipersonnel mines stockpiled in Qatar, and has plans to add to that stockpile. The US is stockpiling 216 ADAM projectiles containing 7,776 antipersonnel mines at the Al Karana area in Doha, Qatar as part of U.S. Army Pre-Positioned Stocks Five (APS-5).

Additionally, based on U.S. Air Force plans for its war reserve ammunition stockpiles in the Persian Gulf region, U.S. Gator antipersonnel mines, as well as Claymore mines, may be introduced and stockpiled at the Al Udeid area in Qatar in the near future. U.S. Air Force documents indicate that the Al Udeid storage facility will eventually contain 142 CBU-89 Gator mine systems, each with twenty-two antipersonnel mines, and 141 M18/M18A1 Claymore mines.

Qatari diplomats stated that the "mine issue has not been discussed between Qatar and the USA." It is not known if the government of Qatar regards the U.S. equipment stored on its territory as being under Qatari jurisdiction and control. It is also not known if any bilateral arrangement exists between Qatar and the U.S. such as a basing agreement or status of forces agreement. The equipment is stored on territory that is leased by the US.

Qatar has defence pacts with the US, the UK, Russia and France (circa 1998).