Trump meets Qatar PM in New York days after Israel’s deadly attack on Doha

US President Donald Trump shared dinner with Qatar’s prime minister in New York on Friday, just days after Israel’s deadly assault on Hamas leaders in Doha, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads to Israeli-occupied territories to pledge more support.

The Israeli regime attacked a residential area in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Tuesday, targeting Hamas’s leadership.

Top Hamas leaders, who were meeting to discuss a Gaza ceasefire proposal, survived the attack. However, five members of the Gaza-based resistance group and a Qatari security officer were killed.

The US tried to distance itself from the attack, with Trump claiming that the assassination attempt was not his decision.

While US officials had been notified of the Israeli attack in advance, Qatar said there was no warning of the strike from the United States.

Since the attack, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who is also Qatar’s foreign minister, has been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in the US.

Over the Friday dinner meeting, Al Thani and Trump were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.

The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.

Ahead of Friday’s dinner, Al Thani also met US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House, where they discussed Israel’s strikes and the US-Qatar security partnership.

Turkey condemns Israeli strike in Qatar as ‘state terrorism’, calls for decisive action

Turkey strongly condemns Israel’s recent airstrike targeting Hamas’s political leadership in Doha, calling it “state terrorism”.

Washington considers Qatar, which hosts its Al Udeid airbase in the desert outside Doha, as a key Persian Gulf ally.

Qatar has also been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza, and for a post-war plan for the territory.

Following the deadly strike, Qatar decried Israel’s “cowardly” assault as “state terrorism,” promising to respond to the strikes.

In another statement, Qatar denounced Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s “barbarism”; however, Al Thani said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.

While the US, which traditionally shields Israel on the international stage, joined fellow members of the United Nations Security Council in condemning Israel for its attack on Qatar, Rubio was set to travel to Israeli-occupied territories this weekend for a two-day visit to reaffirm Washington’s support for the Zionist regime.

The meeting will come ahead of an upcoming UN summit on September 22, where several Western countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement that during the visit, Rubio will speak to Israeli leaders about the US commitment to “fight anti-Israel actions,” including recognition of a Palestinian state, which it claimed “rewards Hamas terrorism.”

Pigott added that Rubio “will also emphasise our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again” and bringing all the captives home.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 64,756 people and wounded 164,059 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble.

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