The US State Department has approved the potential sale of an anti-drone system to Qatar in a deal valued at $1 billion, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
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The principal contractors will be Raytheon Technologies Corp RTX.N, SRC, and Northrop Grumman Corp NOC.N, the Pentagon said in a statement. It added that the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale on Tuesday.
The potential sale approval comes after US President Joe Biden, earlier this year, designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, granting special status to a key friend in a turbulent region.
"Qatar is a good friend and reliable and capable partner. And I'm notifying Congress that I will designate Qatar as a major non-NATO ally to reflect the importance of our relationship. I think it's long overdue," Biden said in January when he met Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Separately, Qatar has also played a role in the Iran nuclear talks and in relations with Afghanistan, where Washington's interests were represented by the small Gulf country. Iranian forces have recently been blamed for an attack on an Israeli-owned oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Iran has been linked to multiple such attacks in the past, with the rivalry between the Sunni Arab states and the Islamic republic playing out in multiple theaters across the region, from Lebanon to Yemen.
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