Trump meets Qatar Emir on Air Force 1 during stopover; gets Gaza troop assurance
Donald Trump met Qatar’s Emir aboard Air Force One during a refueling stop, thanking Qatar for mediating the Gaza peace deal and discussing a stabilisation force involving Qatari troops. The visit precedes trade-focused summits in Asia, including a key meeting with China’s Xi
Doha: US President Donald Trump held an unusual summit — on board Air Force One — meeting the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, during a refueling stop on his way to Malaysia.
After their meeting while the plane was at the Al Udeid Air Base on Saturday, Trump said that an international stabilisation force for Gaza was taking shape and Qatar would contribute troops.
At the meeting with the Qatar’s Emir and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, Trump thanked them for their mediation that resulted in the Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
“What we’ve done is incredible — peace to the Middle East — and they were a very big factor in it, so I just want to thank you,” he told them. He added, “You have safe Middle East. Keep it that way.” “I hope so,” the Qatari Emir replied.
The Emir and the Prime Minister came to the Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the region, for the meeting. The Emir said at the start of their meeting, “As soon as I found out that he is coming to refuel, I said, ‘I am not going to let him take off unless I came to say hello.'”
About the summit on the plane, Trump told the Emir, “You don’t do this often.” The Emir said, “No, this is the first time.” “I don’t think he’s done this before,” Trump remarked.
Along with Turkey, Qatar acted as the mediator in the negotiations between Hamas and Israel to end the two-year conflict in Gaza, that culminated this month with the two sides agreeing to a 20-point peace deal proposed by Trump.
Israel struck a building in Qatar where the Hamas negotiators were staying, nearly aborting the negotiations, and infuriating Trump. The Hamas leaders escaped but a Qatar personnel was killed.
Trump forced Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while visiting the White House to apologise to the Emir in a public phone call. With the first phases peace deal — release of hostages by Hamas and prisoners by Israel and the return of the bodies of hostages — nearly complete and a tenuous ceasefire is holding in Gaza except for one flare up, the difficult task of the terrorist organisation laying down arms, or being made to, comes up next.
Participation of Qatari troops would be important for the international stabilisation force planned under the peace deal for the disarming of Hamas and policing of Gaza till a Palestinian police force can take over.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is travelling separately, said, “Many of the countries that have expressed an interest in participating at some level, whether it be monetary or personnel or both.”
But he added that a United Nations Security Council or some other international mandate would be needed “because their domestic laws require it”.
Rubio is set to meet Qatari officials during his stop over there while on his way to Asia. Trump’s itinerary has him at two summits, the ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Gyeongju, South Korea, and a visit to Japan sandwiched between them, all focusing on trade, tariffs and investments. B
ut his planned meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea will dominate the trip, visually and politically. Trump is hoping to reach a trade agreement that scales the recent conflicts over China’s restrictions on export and use of rare earth products and boycott of some US agricultural products, and the US technology controls and punitive tariffs that could add to more than 150 per cent.
