“Qataris were the ones who said, ‘Here, come to our country, we'll host you.’ So, now it is home to the largest American airbase in the Middle East, where we conduct our war on terrorism. And then down the street from this Al Udeid Air Base is Hamas, the Taliban, al Qaeda financiers, ISIS financiers … it is a truly bizarre arrangement.”

Dr. Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He’s also a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Treasury Department, and the author of several books on Islamic extremism.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the largest, if not the largest, grassroots political and religious organizations in the Middle East, and it is the cornerstone for just about every radical ideology that we have seen and faced over the last two decades since the 9/11 attacks,” says Dr. Schanzer.

We discuss the role that Qatar has played in international geopolitics, commanding vast influence campaigns in the West and funding an array of terrorist outfits in the East.

“The Qataris have been able to sustain it with a massive amount of lobby money and investment here in the United States, and so some of its greatest proponents are the Pentagon and the State Department. And they’ve gotten to the point where it’s almost as if they can do no wrong—until 10/7. That’s when it, I think, began to become clear to the average American that the Qataris are playing both arsonist and firefighter. They spend $200 million a year propping up Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They give Hamas headquarters in Doha. And then as soon as the crisis hits, they are trying to negotiate between the United States and Israel and Hamas, pretending to be a good-faith actor. But at the end of the day, I think we all have realized that they are advocating first and foremost for Hamas.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.