Politico: Trump worried Israeli strike could permanently derail Gaza deal talks
Al-Khamisa News Network - Gaza
US site Politico reported that President Donald Trump and his close aides are worried that Israel’s unprecedented strike on Doha may have derailed Gaza deal negotiations perhaps forever.
The site quoted a person close to Trump’s national security team and another US official familiar with the details as saying that the administration’s frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has deepened since Tuesday’s strike, to the point that Trump and his aides have begun to wonder whether he is trying to sabotage the negotiations. The report was also translated by Sada News.
The source close to Trump’s team said: “It seems that every time progress is made, Netanyahu bombs someone… that is why the president and his aides are extremely frustrated with him.”
At the same time, the two sources said the White House is working to calm the Qataris, who described the Israeli strike as “brutal.”
Trump himself said on Thursday night that he hopes the Israeli attack in Qatar will not affect the agreement with senior Hamas leaders on the release of hostages.
Asked by reporters outside the White House whether the strike would affect the deal, he replied: “I hope it does not affect it at all… we want the hostages released, and we want that to happen soon.”
Politico reported that Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will meet Trump in Washington today to discuss the Israeli strike on Doha and the status of negotiations with Hamas; Al Thani is also due to meet Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkof, according to a Sada News translation.
A source close to Trump’s national security team said Secretary Rubio spoke with the Qatari prime minister in recent days, focusing mainly on prioritizing a plan to expand the US‑Qatar security cooperation agreement. Rubio is expected to visit Israel next week, though it is not yet clear whether he will also visit Qatar.
In the first White House statement on the matter after Tuesday’s strike, White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Trump is frustrated by Israel’s decision to strike Qatar — a US ally that hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East and which Trump visited last May — and the administration also said it learned of the strike from the US military, adding that Israel did not consult Washington beforehand nor made any notable effort to inform it.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Trump criticized Netanyahu’s decision to strike and expressed anger after learning about it from the US military rather than directly from Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, for his part, told Trump that he had a short window of time for the strike and decided to exploit it, while Trump voiced frustration at the decision to attack Qatar — a US ally and its mediator in talks with Hamas — calling the decision “unwise.”
Sources in the Trump administration said that about 24 hours later the two held a subsequent conversation that was “friendly,” during which Trump asked Netanyahu whether the strike had proved effective; Netanyahu replied that he did not know.
