Donald Trump (AP image)
US President Donald Trump urged Israel to be “very careful” in its actions concerning Qatar, highlighting the Gulf nation’s role as a key ally of the United States.Speaking to reporters at Morristown Airport, Trump was asked whether he had a message for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following last week’s airstrikes on Hamas leaders in Qatar, which reportedly failed to eliminate their targets, Times of Israel reported. “My message is that they have to be very, very careful. They have to do something about Hamas, but Qatar has been a great ally to the United States. A lot of people don’t know that,” Trump said. The US President’s remarks come days after he hosted Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani for dinner in New York. Trump described the Qatari leader as a “wonderful person” and said he had advised Qatar to improve its public image. “People talk of it so badly, and they shouldn’t be,” Trump added.Trump was joined at the dinner by Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, as the president marked the anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York. “Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said in a post on X.The meeting followed an Israeli strike in Doha that killed six people, including a Qatari security officer, though Hamas leaders escaped unharmed. The attack, which took place in the Katara district, drew condemnation from Qatar as “state terrorism.”Earlier, US President has expressed concern over the strike, saying he was “not thrilled about the whole situation” and warning that it could undermine ongoing efforts to secure a fragile Gaza ceasefire. “I’m not thrilled about the whole situation. It’s not a good situation,” he told reporters at the White House. “But I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down,” he added.The US President sought to distance himself from the strike, emphasizing that it “does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” and assured Qatar that such an incident would not be repeated.
