Prior to talks with Trump, Sheikh Mohammed met US Secretary of State Rubio, who is heading to Israel to pledge continued support
\nNews Agency
\nWashington DC
\nQatar\u2019s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has met United States President Donald Trump in New York in the wake of Israel\u2019s deadly strike on Doha this week.
\nSheikh Mohammed, who is also the country\u2019s foreign minister, has been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in the US since Israel\u2019s attack on a Hamas meeting in Doha on Tuesday, which killed a Qatari security official and five Hamas members who were discussing a new deal proposed by Trump to end the Gaza war.
\nAhead of Friday\u2019s dinner meeting with the US president, Sheikh Mohammed met US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House, where they discussed Israel\u2019s strikes and the US-Qatar security arrangement, according to Al Jazeera\u2019s Kimberly Halkett.
\nWashington counts Qatar, which hosts its Al Udeid airbase in the desert outside Doha, as a strong Gulf ally.
\nTrump has already said he was \u201cvery unhappy\u201d about Israel\u2019s targeting of Qatar, which appeared designed to derail ongoing Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks.
\n\u201cThe concern is that the relationship between Qatar and the United States has become increasingly complicated as a result of those strikes, so they\u2019re looking for a path forward on both of those issues,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC.
\nHalkett said Friday\u2019s scheduled meeting with Trump would \u201ccontinue the conversations regarding Israel\u2019s attack on Doha earlier this week and the negotiations to end Israel\u2019s war on Gaza\u201d.
\nThe location and time of the dinner remain unclear, but Trump is currently in New York and is staying at his eponymous Manhattan tower.
\nBalancing act
\nThis week has also seen the Trump administration engaged in a balancing act between Middle East allies and Israel.
\nThe issue was brought to the fore on Thursday, when the US \u2013 which traditionally shields Israel on the international stage \u2013 joined fellow members of the United Nations Security Council in condemning the country for its attack on Qatar.
\nBut in what appears to be a show of continued support for Israel, Rubio will arrive in Israel this weekend for a two-day visit before attending an upcoming UN summit on September 22, where a number of Western countries plan to recognise a Palestinian state.
\nThat meeting signals growing international momentum towards a viable post-conflict settlement for Israel and Palestine, which was manifest at Friday\u2019s meeting of the UN General Assembly, which endorsed a resolution pushing for a revival of the two-state solution.
\nFrance and Saudi Arabia have been instrumental in pushing for \u201ccollective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict\u201d, which has so far killed at least 64,756 people.
\nDuring his visit to Israel, Rubio will speak to leaders about \u201cour commitment to fight anti-Israel actions, including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism\u201d, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
\n\u201cHe will also emphasise our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again and bringing all the hostages home,\u201d Pigott added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prior to talks with Trump, Sheikh Mohammed met US Secretary of State Rubio, who is heading to Israel to pledge continued support News Agency Washington DC Qatar\u2019s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has met United States President Donald Trump in New York in the wake of Israel\u2019s deadly strike on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-502728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n