US negotiators say they were ‘very upset’ by Israeli strike on Qatar
(MENAFN) Two of U.S. President Donald Trump’s key mediators in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations said Israel’s missile strike on a compound in Doha, Qatar, in September severely damaged trust and complicated regional peace efforts.
In an interview on Sunday , Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is serving as an informal adviser to the administration, described the attack as a breach of trust. “It violated a lot of the trust that we felt we deserved from the Israeli side,” he said, calling it “not a smart strategic move.”
U.S. Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff echoed the sentiment, saying both he and Kushner felt “betrayed” by the strike, which targeted Hamas negotiators during ongoing ceasefire and hostage negotiations involving the U.S., Israel, and Qatar. “We were having a very productive session. Then we woke up the next morning to find out that there had been this attack,” Witkoff recalled.
According to the pair, the bombing “crossed a line” for U.S. mediators, temporarily derailing negotiations and isolating Qatar, a key intermediary. “We had lost the confidence of the Qataris,” Witkoff said, noting the strike’s “metastasizing effect.”
Kushner noted that Trump intervened personally, pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize to Qatar’s leadership. “That apology was pivotal,” Witkoff added, calling it the “linchpin that got us to the next place.”
The incident underscored tensions between U.S. and Israeli approaches to the Gaza talks. Kushner emphasized that Washington’s strategy relied on “trust and pragmatic realism,” warning that breaking that trust could jeopardize long-term stability.
Witkoff and Kushner also described a pivotal Oct. 8 meeting in Egypt with Hamas’ chief negotiator, who survived the Doha strike but had lost his son. “We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son,” Witkoff said. “I told him that I had lost a son and that we were both members of a really bad club — parents who have buried children.”
Kushner described the exchange as transformative, saying it shifted the meeting “from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings showing vulnerability with each other.”
The September 9 strike occurred amid intense U.S.-led efforts to end the Gaza war and secure the release of Israeli hostages. Qatar, along with Egypt and Türkiye, has served as a central mediator in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas. The rare direct apology from Netanyahu to Qatari officials allowed negotiations to resume, ultimately leading to the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
