US, Qatar Sign Pact to Legalise Huge Military Base

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 12, 2002

US, Qatar Sign Pact to Legalise Huge Military Base

The United States and Qatar signed an agreement on Wednesday that formally allows the United States to use the Al Udeid Air Base in the small oil-rich Gulf state, reports reaching Kuwait City said.

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The United States and Qatar signed an agreement on Wednesday that formally allows the United States to use the Al Udeid Air Base in the small oil-rich Gulf state, reports reaching Kuwait City said.

The agreement was signed in the Qatari capital of Doha by visiting US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabir Al-Thani

The air base, 45 kilometers west of Doha, has the longest runwayin the Gulf region.

The base became an important facility earlier this year when Saudi Arabia indicated that it might not let the United States use the US state-of-the-art command center at Prince Sultan base near the Saudi capital of Riyadh to attack Iraq.

In addition to the signing of the agreement, Rumsfeld, who arrived in Doha earlier in the day, came to the country to witness US war games code named "Internal Look," which started on Monday and will last seven to 10 days, at the US As-Sayliyah army base near Doha.

"Internal Look" is a biennial exercise to test the command, control and communications abilities of the US Central Command Headquarters and all component commands throughout its area of responsibility.

It is the first time for the operation to be run from outside the United States.

A mobile command post, shipped from Florida, will remain in Qatar, a close ally of the United States, after the exercise concludes next week, according to earlier reports.

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