ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/DOHA: US President Donald Trump met Saturday with the emir and prime minister of Qatar—a key ally in preserving the fragile Gaza peace deal—en route to Asia and high-stakes trade talks with China’s Xi Jinping.
The Qatari leaders boarded Air Force One when it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the regional headquarters for the US military and thousands of American troops.
Trump said the duo had played a crucial role in the Middle East peace process, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had been his “friend to the world.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US officials are getting input on a possible UN resolution or international agreement to authorise a multinational force in Gaza and will discuss the issue in Qatar on Sunday (today).
“Many of the countries that have expressed an interest in participating at some level—whether it be monetary or personnel or both—are going to need that (a UN resolution or international agreement) because their domestic laws require it,” Rubio told reporters traveling on his plane between Israel and Qatar en route to Asia.“So we have a whole team working on that outline of it.”
The talks in Qatar came as Israel conducted an air strike targeting an alleged Islamic Jihad militant in Gaza, despite the ceasefire brokered by the US president.
Trump is set to meet Xi in South Korea on the last day of his regional swing in a bid to seal a deal to end the bruising trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, and said he would also like to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his trip.
He will also visit Malaysia and Japan on his first trip to Asia since he returned to the White House in January in a blaze of tariffs and international dealmaking.
Earlier, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he hoped for a “very good meeting” with Xi, adding that he expected China to make a deal to avoid further 100 percent tariffs that are due to come into effect on November 1.
Trump said Saturday that he would not schedule any talks with Vladimir Putin unless it was clear that the Russian leader was serious about making a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
