US military pullout from Qatar indicates instability in Washington: Analyst

The US military pullout from Qatar indicates instability and an unpredictable course of events in Washington, says a former United States Senate military and foreign policy analyst.

The US Air Force Middle East Command Center at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar suddenly moved its operations from the tiny Persian Gulf Arab state of Qatar to Shaw Air Base in South Carolina.

PressTV-US shifts MidEast command from Qatar to S Carolina

The US Air Force temporarily shifts its command center from Qatar to South Carolina amid US President Donald Trump’s escalation of tensions with Iran.

The US Air Force used this Qatari base to command fighter jets, bombers, drones and other aircraft in an area stretching from Northeast Africa through the Middle East to South Asia.

Press TV asked James Jatras, a former Senate foreign policy adviser in Washington, on Monday what had caused the sudden pull out from the Persian Gulf, and whether it was related to a possible escalation of violence in the region.

The analyst said that the shifting of the location of the Air Force Middle East Command Center can be viewed in two ways: 

"This can be seen in two ways. One is that the United States is preparing itself for some sort of strike on Iran and today we trying to reduce our vulnerability. The other one is that we are not intending such a strike, but this is a contingency."

Either way, Jatras was convinced that the exit indicated the possibility of an outbreak of hostilities.  

"Clearly the overarching concern would be to deprive Iran of a major target in case of an outbreak of hostilities," Jatras said.

He said nowadays US President Donald Trump was preoccupied with the question of impeachment, and with former US National Security Adviser John Bolton out of the White House equation, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in charge of American policy.

PressTV-Why Pompeo changed tone on Iran war rhetoric   

Trump does not want war with Iran and Pompeo has changed his tone accordingly, according to former American Senate foreign policy analyst James Jatras.

"We are still in a period of great instability and unpredictability in terms of the course of events. I just hope that cool heads prevail and this is not a preparation to United States doing something I think very very stupid with respect to Iran," Jatras concluded.  

Tensions escalated in the region following the September 14 attacks on Saudi oil facilities claimed by Yemen's Ansarullah movement.

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and their allies in the Yemeni army deployed as many as 10 drones to bomb Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco.

The unprecedented attack knocked out more than half of Saudi crude output, or five percent of global supply.

Saudi and US officials suggested without any evidence that the attacks on Aramco installations probably originated from Iraq or Iran. Then, the US and Saudi Arabia started to accuse Iran of carrying out the attacks.

Tehran, however, has rejected the allegations. Iran says instead stating false allegations against Tehran, western countries must stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia to use in the US-backed aggression against neighboring Yemen which has till now left thousands of civilians dead, forced millions more to leave or lose their homes, and sparked widespread starvation and insecurity in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region.

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