US, Israeli and Qatari officials held a meeting Sunday in New York as part of an effort to rebuild relations after Israel’s airstrike in September on Doha targeting Hamas leaders, a White House official said.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff met with David Barnea — the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency — and a senior Qatari official. Witkoff hosted the meeting, said the White House official, who spoke on anonymity.
The talks comes as the Trump administration attempts to coax its regional allies such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia to establish formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Such a coalition would help advance Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, but Israel’s strike in Qatar and military operations in Gaza have hindered the efforts.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Saturday the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas are going through “a critical moment.”
There’s “a lot of uncertainty” over Middle East stability as deadly Israeli strikes continue to shake fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon and Iran’s standoff with the US remains unaddressed, he also told the Doha Forum on Sunday.
Sunday’s meeting in New York was first reported by Axios.
Israel’s strike on Doha, Qatar’s capital, was aimed at leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that attacked Israel in October 2023 — triggering the war in Gaza. The Doha attack prompted rare criticism of Israeli leaders by the White House and unnerved Gulf neighbors of Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East.
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