The United States has numerous bases with tens of thousands of soldiers in the region: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq. Where US soldiers are stationed in larger numbers, the respective state tours could be comparatively certain that these regions are not attacked. In this way, these countries improved their relationships with Washington and enabled the Americans to act as a proper power in the region.
Washington also benefited economically from its presence in the region. On the one hand, the Americans do billions of business with the Gulf States, sell technologies or armaments to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Qatar. On the other hand, the United States imports eight percent of its need for heavy crude oil from Saudi Arabia. And at the same time, you can protect the most important Seehandelsstraße in the Red Sea with your military bases. Geostrategic interests are also reasons for the US presence: Here, Americans can appear to Iran as a present and generally lead their struggle against international terrorism. The bases in the Golf always served as reinsurance for the United States and its allies in Afghanistan.
Billions of business deals and geostrategy-that is why Trump also undertook his first trip abroad to Riad at the beginning of his second term, then traveled to Qatar-a symbol of how important the region is for the current US president.
Much of what has happened in the past few weeks and months can be seen against this strategic background. Hamas has hardly allies among the Gulf States, and countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain condemned the terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, through which more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel. Qatar, on the other hand, made it his business model to serve the West as a bridge builder to Islamist groups. When western states wanted to negotiate with Hamas or the Afghan Taliban, they asked at the Emirate.
