US approves to sell guided missiles worth Rs $300 million to Qatar amidst Gulf crisis

Washington, April 10: Amidst intensified Gulf crisis, the United States on Monday approved a deal to sell Qatar guided missiles worth Rs $300 million. The move from the United States comes hours before President Donald Trump's White House meeting with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

 

The Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday met US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis after which Washington approved a deal to sell Qatar guided missiles worth Rs $300 million. However, Qatar’s Emir is due to meet President Trump.

In Rs $300 million deal, the US State Department approved the sale of 5,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) to Qatar including 5,000 high explosive warheads. The State Department approving the mega defence deal in a statement said, “Qatar is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Persian Gulf region.” “Our mutual defense interests anchor our relationship and the Qatar Emiri Air Force plays a predominant role in Qatar’s defence,” the statement added.

The development comes after the economic and financial impact on Qatar put by Arab quartet including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt led blockade is fading slowly. Earlier, in the month of March last year, the United States also approved a request from Qatar to upgrade the emirate's air force operations centre.

Importantly, the United States is trying to broker an end to a Saudi-led diplomatic and economic embargo on gas-rich Qatar, and still maintains a huge air base of its own on its territory. In the month of June last year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and several other nations cut ties with Qatar and imposed stringent economic sanctions on it over supporting extremism.

On the other side, Qatar denied all their allegations saying that they never supported Islamist militants and Shi'ite Iran. Later, Saudi and its allies issued a 13-point list of demands to end the rift on June 22 and gave Qatar 10 days to comply. However, earlier Qatar rejected to fulfill the demands. The controversial Qatar World Cup will take place Nov. 21-Dec. 18 in 2022.