In the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas negotiators in the heart of Qatar’s capital, Doha, the White House appeared sidelined from halting a conflict that US President Donald Trump has claimed only he could mediate.
As details of the diplomatic flurry before Tuesday’s extraordinary strike were revealed, it was claimed that the White House had little say in how Israel opened its latest front in its war against Hamas — this one on a US ally hosting negotiations days after Trump had claimed he was close to reaching a deal.
Instead, the Trump administration appears once again to have been caught by surprise, as with Israel’s strikes in June against Iranian military and nuclear program targets that upended US efforts to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
US officials said warnings of the impending strikes on Qatar came so late that US officials were only informed of the attack by the time that Israeli F-16 jets were already en route to the Gulf.
Whether or not the US had closer coordination with the Israelis on the strike than admitted, the White House only informed Qatari officials of the attack 10 minutes after it had begun, Qatar’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
“I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack,” Trump said in a statement.
By Tuesday afternoon, the White House was caught between a policy of supporting Israel’s war against Hamas and of patching up relations with a key US ally in the region with close ties to his administration, in particular Witkoff.
The tightrope walk that the administration is performing was apparent on Tuesday, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a condemnation and justification of the strike, in a statement that appeared desperate to keep the Qatari government onside.
“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” Leavitt said from the podium of the White House press room.
However, she added a tacit endorsement of the strike, saying: “Eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.”
The strikes could mark the end of the ceasefire negotiation process in Qatar, which has mediated talks between Israel and Hamas for nearly two years.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday said that the country would continue to mediate between Israel and Hamas, but “for current talks, I do not think there’s something valid right now after what we saw from today’s attack.”
“It is difficult to imagine the Qataris picking up where they left off,” Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Steven Cook said. “From Doha’s perspective, Qatar has exerted considerable effort to release Israeli hostages only to be repaid with an airstrike on their country.”
Egypt could act as mediator instead, but it is a “thankless task” when “neither the Israeli government nor the Hamas leadership seem interested in a deal,” Cook said.
“I think it really calls into question what is prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s intention,” Israel Policy Forum Washington Managing Director and senior fellow Rachel Brandenburg said during an episode of a podcast hosted by War on the Rocks. “If he is really serious about negotiations and is serious about ending the war, then why strike the political leaders who are negotiating?”
Despite questions about Qatar’s influence on Hamas and whether the militant group’s leaders could negotiate in good faith, “you need someone to mediate and you need someone to negotiate with and this makes that conversation a lot more difficult,” she said.
Qatar was also caught in the crossfire in the aftermath of a US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, as a US military base in the Gulf country was targeted by an Iranian missile barrage that was easily parried by US missile defense systems.
Trump on Tuesday said that he had assured the prime minister and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil.”
However, Israel has suggested otherwise. After Algeria called an emergency session of the UN Security Council, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said: “There will be no immunity for terrorists — not in Gaza, Lebanon or in Qatar.”
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday used their legislative majority to push their version of a special defense budget bill to fund the purchase of US military equipment, with the combined spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.78 billion). The bill, which fell short of the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion request, was passed by a 59-0 margin with 48 abstentions in the 113-seat legislature. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), who reportedly met with TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for a private meeting before holding a joint post-vote news conference, was said to have mobilized her
Before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) can blockade, invade, and destroy the democracy on Taiwan, the CCP seeks to make the world an accomplice to Taiwan’s subjugation by harassing any government that confers any degree of marginal recognition, or defies the CCP’s “One China Principle” diktat that there is no free nation of Taiwan. For United States President Donald Trump’s upcoming May 14, 2026 visit to China, the CCP’s top wish has nothing to do with Trump’s ongoing dismantling of the CCP’s Axis of Evil. The CCP’s first demand is for Trump to cease US
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly widespread in workplaces, some people stand to benefit from the technology while others face lower wages and fewer job opportunities. However, from a longer-term perspective, as AI is applied more extensively to business operations, the personnel issue is not just about changes in job opportunities, but also about a structural mismatch between skills and demand. This is precisely the most pressing issue in the current labor market. Tai Wei-chun (戴偉峻), director-general of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Innovation at the Institute for Information Industry, said in a recent interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times
RSS