Matt Bevan

Land, air and sea routes in and out of Qatar were blocked.

The four blockade countries allege Qatar used its wealth to fund extremist groups linked to Iran.

They demanded that Qatar decrease their diplomatic and military engagement with Iran and Turkey.

And they kick terrorist groups out of their country.

And the closure of its government-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera.

The US military and state department were shocked.

The US has 10,000 troops at a critical air base in Qatar.

American diplomats rushed to stop any fallout.

While the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations had seen Qatar as an ally, this time around the vibe from the White House was very different.

The US president even took credit for the crackdown on Qatar, tweeting, perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism.

It turns out hosting a US military headquarters isn't a great insurance policy if the US president doesn't know it exists.

Thankfully, Trump had some people in his cabinet who were aware of the significance of Qatar.

A group of Trump cabinet officials informally referred to as the Axis of Adults basically ignored his instructions and shored up the relationship with Qatar.

Eventually, the blockade was eased and officially ended in the early months of the Biden administration.

Qatar didn't cave in to any of the Saudi demands.

They survived the blockade with their strategy intact, and their importance as a location for resolving disputes between enemies only increased.

Following the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel,

Qatar was the only mediator able to get both sides to the table for ceasefire and hostage release negotiations.

With officials in Doha insisting talks can continue if both Israel and Hamas show a willingness to negotiate in good faith.

In a world ruled by rational people, you need a safe place for those people to be able to talk to each other while they sort out key differences.