RIYADH, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy said on Tuesday that the Department of Defense denied him access to a key military base in Qatar during a visit to the Middle East, describing it as part of a US government effort to conceal the impact of the Iran war.
The Al Udeid Air Base is the largest US base in the region and has repeatedly been attacked by Iran during the war launched by the US and Israel in February.
“This trip confirmed for me that there is an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort underway to hide the costs of this war and the implications of this war from Congress and the American people,” Murphy told a group of journalists in Riyadh, the second stop on his trip.
Many members of Congress, including some of President Donald Trump’s Republicans, have been pushing his administration to provide them with more information about the cost of the war, strategy and casualties.
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Asked for comment, a senior Pentagon official said Murphy’s office had been informed before his trip that he would not receive the department’s support to access the base, consistent with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s March 3, 2026, directive restricting travel to the area.
“The Department applies the Secretary’s guidance evenly,” the official said in an emailed statement.
Murphy said that the Pentagon refused to set up a briefing for him on the war while he was in the region.
“I’ve never encountered anything like this in my time in the Senate and it’s part of a deliberate campaign of obfuscation that my Republican colleagues in Congress should demand an end to,” he said.
He said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had facilitated his visit, including arranging meetings with diplomats, a stance he contrasted with that of the Pentagon.
During his trip, Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who represents the state of Connecticut, met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani and with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as other senior Gulf officials.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Riyadh; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Sanjeev Miglani)