President Donald Trump revealed on Monday that Israel will no longer attack Qatar further after it reportedly attacked Doha repeatedly last week in an operation which Israel claimed targeted senior Hamas leaders.
Well, he won’t be hitting in Qatar,” Trump said of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during question time in the Oval Office. Trump called Qatar “a very good ally” and added, “he will be maybe going after them,” which appeared to leave other steps against Hamas leaders in the Gulf state on the table, according to US news reports.
Trump denied Axios reporting that Netanyahu personally informed him shortly before last Tuesday’s airstrikes on Doha. “No, they didn’t,” Trump said. When asked how he learned of the airstrikes, he replied, “the same way you did,” U.S. news coverage reported.
After, the White House indicated that the U.S. military informed the administration that the strikes were about to be executed only after the missiles were in the air, leaving the president no opportunity to object, U.S. media outlets stated.
Regional leaders meeting in an emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha on Monday warned that Israel’s bombardments of Qatar held sinister signs for the Middle East and appealed for collective efforts to resist what they described as an effort to impose a new regional order. The final one to comment was Qatar’s state news agency, whose last word was condemning the attacks and standing in total support of Qatar, saying the aggression “undermines any chances of achieving peace in the region,” as reported by Qatar News Agency.
The announcement called on governments to “stand against Israel’s attempts to create a new reality in the region,” and that such steps pose a “direct threat to regional and international security,” the agency said.
Israel claimed the operation was to target senior Hamas leaders. Trump’s remarks on Monday indicated Washington does not anticipate any further Israeli attacks on Qatari soil, even though he was still uncertain what comes next in targeting Hamas leaders in the Gulf, according to U.S. reports.
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