NEW YORK — US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the leaders of the terror group with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump reportedly expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as in public, and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined for the meal 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.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Vance and Rubio expressed their appreciation for Qatar’s “tireless mediation efforts and its effective role in bringing peace to the region,” and said that Doha is a “reliable strategic ally of the United States of America.”
Thani “affirmed that the State of Qatar will take all measures to protect its security and safeguard its sovereignty in the face of the blatant Israeli attack,” the statement read.
Trump has said he is unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Nevertheless, Rubio is set to leave for a visit to Israel on Saturday, where he will speak to Israeli leaders about “our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism,” US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement on Friday.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Doha has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.
Israel’s security establishment now increasingly believes it failed to kill any of Hamas’s top brass who were gathered at the site of Tuesday’s strike in Doha.
Hamas identified the dead as Jihad Labad, head of the office of top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya; al-Hayya’s son Hammam al-Hayya; and three others described as “associates” — either advisers or bodyguards: Abdallah Abd al-Wahid, Muamen Hassouna and Ahmad Abd al-Malek. In addition, a Qatari security officer, Lance Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, was killed.
Doha will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Sunday and Monday to discuss the Israeli attack, Qatar’s state news agency reported.