OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Israel on Monday that the United States backed the “constructive role” by Qatar in mediating in Gaza, after an Israeli strike on the Gulf state against Hamas.
President Donald Trump and Rubio have both said they opposed the attack last week on Qatar, which is home to the largest US air base in the Middle East.
Asked what he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rubio said, “We are focused on what happens now, what happens next, what role can Qatar play possibly in reaching an outcome” to end the Gaza war.
“We’re going to continue to encourage Qatar to play a constructive role in that regard,” Rubio told a joint news conference with Netanyahu.
Netanyahu defended the Israeli strike against Hamas, which carried out the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“We assume full responsibility for it because we believe that terrorists should not be given a haven and the people who planned the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust cannot have immunity,” Netanyahu said.
He compared the strike to how the US military acted “very boldly” after the September 11, 2001, with its war on Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the 2011 raid into Pakistan that killed attack mastermind Osama bin Laden.
“Those countries that are condemning Israel today did not come and say, well, what a terrible thing was done, the sovereignty of Pakistan was violated, the sovereignty of Afghanistan was violated,” Netanyahu said.
“You don’t have such a sovereignty when you are effectively giving a base to terrorists,” he said.
Before the October 7 attack, Israel as well as the United States reportedly had quietly encouraged Qatar’s role including its transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas in hopes of maintaining stability in Gaza.
Israel and the United States also viewed Qatar, with its close relationship with Washington, as a better place to keep an eye on Hamas and prevent the militants from basing themselves in Iran, whose clerical state openly backs the group.
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