‘US president's Qatar visit further streamlines Gaza mediation efforts'
QNA
Doha
The US President Donald Trump's visit to Qatar seeks to further bolster the bilateral strategic partnership amid regional and international developments that require close coordination between both sides, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Dr. Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari said.
Talking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Al Ansari said the US president's visit demonstrates Qatar's key regional and international efforts across a variety of issues, including regional security, energy, and mediation to resolve disputes through peaceful means and diplomatic channels, and highlights the two sides' keenness to reinforce frameworks for dialogue and joint cooperation.
The visit agenda will most likely include talks on security and defence cooperation, the Palestinian cause and the Gaza Strip developments, and economic and investment partnerships, he said.
Al Ansari voiced hopes that the visit would further advance the joint Qatari-US-Egyptian mediation efforts regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip. He reiterated that enhancing coordination with international partners, especially the United States, is key to helping diplomatic efforts to establish a ceasefire, streamline humanitarian aid access, and ensure the protection of civilians.
Al Ansari noted that the State of Qatar is committed to its humanitarian and diplomatic role and continues to work with all parties to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable truce, ensuring the alleviation of the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. He added that the US President's visit is an important opportunity to unify efforts and increase international pressure to end the escalation and prepare the conditions for resuming the political process.
Al Ansari added that Qatari-US relations represent a successful model of strategic cooperation, as both sides contribute to supporting efforts to achieve calm and peace through joint cooperation and coordination on numerous regional and international issues. This reflects the level of mutual trust and ongoing cooperation between the two countries to achieve global and regional stability.
He indicated that the partnership between the State of Qatar and the United States has proven its ability to positively influence the situation through close cooperation within the framework of joint mediation, in addition to ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, conclude a hostage exchange deal, and end the war. He also explained that the State of Qatar and the United States cooperated closely on the Afghan issue, and this cooperation resulted in significant success in the evacuation operations of approximately 120,000 people.
Al Ansari noted that Qatari mediation, in coordination with the United States, played a prominent role in reaching the peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban, signed in Doha in 2020.
Highlighting the humanitarian aspect of bilateral relations, he said both sides have collaborated across the spheres of relief, development, education, and health, through partnerships with international organizations, United Nations agencies, and charitable institutions.
The two countries share a common vision on the importance of supporting people affected by crises and disasters, he added, highlighting their cooperation to address humanitarian crises around the world and provide aid to communities suffering from conflict, based on established principles of respect for human dignity.
Al Ansari added that these values are clearly demonstrated in the close cooperation between the two countries, alongside the Arab Republic of Egypt, through joint mediation aimed at halting the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, reaching a ceasefire agreement, exchanging hostages, and delivering aid, despite significant challenges.
This joint humanitarian role also reflects the depth of the strategic partnership and mutual trust between the two countries, and their commitment to achieving regional and international stability.
He added that the State of Qatar can play a pivotal multi-area role in supporting the US' efforts for regional and global peace and stability. He pointed out that the State of Qatar possesses extensive experience in mediation and has successfully mediated a number of regional and international conflicts, making it a reliable partner for the US in facilitating dialogue and building bridges of trust with various parties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
17 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Has DOGE really saved the US government $180bn?
President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk celebrated their efforts to slash federal spending before Musk stepped away from his White House work. Musk wore a black DOGE hat over a bruised right eye that he blamed on his young son's punch. That was May 30 in the Oval Office. Days later, the two billionaires were punching at each other on the social media platforms they own. Their fight began over federal tax and spending legislation, with Musk calling a Trump-backed bill 'a disgusting abomination' and Trump saying he was 'very disappointed' with Musk. Soon, Musk claimed credit for Trump and Republicans winning in 2024, and Trump threatened to cut off Musk's companies' federal contracts. I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025The public display of animosity called into question the fate of months of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) work. Under Musk's oversight and with Trump's approval, DOGE axed billions of dollars in grants for state health departments and scientific research. It gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers. It all but shuttered the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the decades-old department that provides food and healthcare to people in other countries. Still, as Musk ended his work with DOGE, it was clear that the group's cost-cutting achievements fell short of Musk's goals. A week before Trump won his second term, Musk said he expected to cut 'at least $2 trillion', without identifying a timeframe for doing it. He later lowered that to $1 trillion. But both figures were wildly unrealistic. Even if Musk could have eliminated every dollar of non-defence discretionary spending – everything from air traffic control, medical research, federal prosecutors and prisons to border control, US embassies and national parks – he wouldn't have reached his $1 trillion goal. As of early June, DOGE's online 'wall of receipts' accounting of federal dollars cut said that the government had cut $180 billion. But analyses by PolitiFact, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the conservative American Enterprise Institute showed that the tallies Musk provided were flawed. And total 2025 federal spending under Trump has continued to grow. Nat Malkus, an education policy specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said DOGE's cuts showed an 'appetite for recklessness', and its error and exaggeration-filled wall of receipts provided 'ample grounds for scepticism' about its accuracy. 'Beyond that, the receipts only cover a fraction of their actions, making their accomplishments and savings impossible to verify,' Malkus said. DOGE's 'wall of receipts' reported that the $180bn savings represented a combination of actions, including lease and grant cancellations, 'fraud and improper payment deletion' and eliminating employees. During their May 30 news conference, Musk predicted savings would rise to $1 trillion, but their public dispute made DOGE's future more uncertain. A few top lieutenants had already departed; dozens of DOGE employees remained. DOGE says its wall of receipts is incomplete: 'We are working to upload all of our receipts in a digestible and transparent manner consistent with applicable rules and regulations,' the website says, calling its list 'a subset of contract, grant, and lease cancellations, representing ~30 percent of total savings.' And it has errors. For example, DOGE said it would save $740,457 by ending a lease that housed records for the Barack Obama Presidential Library. But the federal government had already planned to end that lease in 2025. The property's leasing company told PolitiFact on May 30 that the government is still using the property and paying rent. If the government leaves before September, it will have to continue paying under the lease's terms, unless another tenant is secured. Some of DOGE's contract and grant cancellations are being litigated, and the government may ultimately be required to fulfil them. 'Even for grants and contracts that DOGE cut, the claimed savings may never be realised,' Joshua Sewell, a federal budget expert at Taxpayers for Common Sense, said. The $180bn figure was aspirational and projected, PolitiFact found. 'Itemised, verifiable cuts – those with receipts – are roughly half that amount,' said Dominik Lett, a budget policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute. 'Of those itemised cuts, there are numerous clerical errors and inflated savings values.' Government officials did not respond to our questions about how many federal employees were cut. The New York Times reported that as of May 12, the government reduced its workforce by roughly 135,000, including cuts and buyouts. That amounts to a tiny portion of the 2.4 million federal workforce, with similarly modest savings in salaries. The Reuters news agency, counting early retirements in addition to buyouts and firings, said the tally was 260,000. When 75,000 employees who took buyouts come off the books in October, that will save about $10bn a year, or 0.1 percent of federal spending, Jessica Riedl, an expert on the federal budget at the conservative Manhattan Institute, wrote in an essay for The Atlantic. (Trump quoted the 75,000 figure during his May 30 news conference.) But the government could end up hiring contractors to perform some of that work, further shrinking those savings. Not every agency or department faced widespread cuts. The Justice Department's staffing was reduced by about 1 percent, The New York Times found. But nearly all employees were cut at USAID and AmeriCorps. Nearly half of the Education Department's staff were cut. Federal government spending continues to rise. In April 2025, total spending was $594bn, $27bn more than in April 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's a 5 percent increase. The largest spending decrease – $17bn – came in the Department of Education, which Trump promised to eliminate. But Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid outlays rose, as did some department spending, including in agriculture and defence. Some of DOGE's line items show savings of zero dollars, which a White House spokesperson said means that the money has been spent but won't be renewed, such as for news subscriptions or training. It also showed some negative values for grants; a State Department spokesperson said they were caused by an input error that had since been corrected, although it was still on the site as of about noon ET (16:00 GMT) on June 5. It's unclear whether DOGE's spending cuts will be permanent because federal law requires the executive branch to send proposed cuts, known as 'rescissions', to Congress for approval. The White House on June 3 sent a $9.4bn package of rescission cuts to Congress that includes cutting foreign aid. 'DOGE can kill projects, but the spending doesn't become savings until Congress votes to 'unspend' the money,' Malkus said. DOGE also increased some government costs, such as those incurred when defending against lawsuits. DOGE left no state untouched, according to an analysis by the liberal Center for American Progress. It terminated leases and grants to health departments, universities and volunteer programmes across the country. DOGE listed terminations of hundreds of millions of dollars in state health department grants, which represented some of the group's biggest 'savings'. These cuts targeted health departments in states including Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. The administration said the cuts mostly affected money used for the COVID-19 pandemic response. Twenty-three states challenged the cuts in a lawsuit that argued the move caused states 'tremendous chaos' including 'immediate harm to public health initiatives and the termination of large numbers of state and local public health employees and contractors'. In mid-May, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the federal government to release the frozen funding. 'These funds support state and local health departments in combatting infectious diseases, as well as offering mental health services and funding addiction treatment programmes,' said Lynn Sutfin, a state Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson in Michigan, one of the state plaintiffs. Other cuts included nearly $400m in AmeriCorps grants, resulting in the terminations of more than 32,000 AmeriCorps members and volunteers, and the historic gutting of USAID, the nation's federal international humanitarian and development arm. One local AmeriCorps programme, Serve Louisiana, filed a lawsuit to stop cuts to its $700,000 grant that aimed to place 37 workers with Louisiana nonprofits, including a food bank, a library and Boys and Girls Clubs, through August. As of June 2, the lawsuit was ongoing. 'Our nonprofit partners are now scrambling to adapt without the help they counted on,' Serve Louisiana Executive Director Lisa Moore said. USAID programmes aimed to reduce hunger and disease and promote democracy globally. In fiscal year 2024, USAID made up 0.3 percent of the federal budget. Weeks after Trump's inauguration, DOGE froze nearly all of USAID's spending and terminated nearly all employees. Musk boasted on February 3 that DOGE had fed 'USAID into the wood chipper', and two weeks later he wielded a chainsaw at a conservative political event to symbolise what he said was his attack on federal bureaucracy. USAID's dismantling had sprawling global effects. In Ukraine – the largest recipient of USAID funds since Russia's 2022 invasion – regional media outlets lost funding and medical charities shuttered programmes that screened for and treated tuberculosis and HIV, NPR reported. US diplomats in Malawi said US funding cuts to the United Nations World Food Programme increased criminal activity, sexual violence and human trafficking in a large refugee camp, ProPublica reported. American embassy officials in Kenya said funding cuts to refugee camp food programmes led to violent demonstrations, ProPublica said. People also died because of the chaotic aid disruptions, according to Al Jazeera, NPR, The Associated Press, and other news organisations. The consequences are still unspooling. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that up to four million people in Africa might die from treatable diseases without USAID funding. Former USAID officials told Reuters that, because of the cuts, food rations worth $98m that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are decaying in warehouses and some are likely to be destroyed. The World Health Organization cautioned in March that USAID cuts could trigger a global increase in tuberculosis cases and deaths. Musk and Trump said that DOGE would ferret out fraud, too. Government reports predating Trump's current term show fraud is a real problem, but so far DOGE has not proven that it has recently uncovered mass fraud. A White House spokesperson said there had been 50 criminal referrals stemming from DOGE's work and pointed to three individuals charged for voting as a noncitizen in New York or Florida. Statements by federal prosecutors said that DOGE assisted with the cases. Such cases had been prosecuted before DOGE's creation.
Qatar Tribune
an hour ago
- Qatar Tribune
Tens of thousands perform Eid Al Adha prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of worshippers performed Eid Al Adha prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque this morning. The chants of 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) were heard, heralding the first day of Eid, amidst large crowds of worshippers, despite restrictions imposed by the occupation and its settlers. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers engaged in provocative actions against worshippers leaving Al Aqsa Mosque, singing and chanting. They positioned themselves on Al-Mujahideen Street between Bab Al-Hitta and Bab Al-Asbat. The mosque's courtyards were filled with worshippers coming from Jerusalem and across the Palestinian territories, amid a distinct spiritual atmosphere, despite the restrictions and measures imposed by the Israeli authorities at the entrances to the Old City and the gates of the mosque. Coinciding with Eid Al Adha, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to impose tight security measures in Jerusalem and around Al Aqsa Mosque, preventing thousands from entering.
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump-Musk feud escalates: What happened? And what comes next?
Washington, DC – The ties between United States President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have seen highs and lows throughout the years. But it all came crashing down on Thursday after months of what appeared to be an unshakable alliance in the White House. A disagreement over Trump's massive tax bill has escalated over the past few days, with Musk going so far as to suggest that the US president should be impeached. In a series of social media posts, Musk launched personal attacks against Trump, culminating in a claim, made without evidence, that Trump is in the 'Epstein files'. Those documents relate to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and include travel logs and guest lists related to him and his associates. Part of the Epstein files remain secret, sparking curiosity and conspiracy theories about who might be mentioned. Trump, meanwhile, responded with a social media fusillade of his own. He claimed he asked Musk to leave his White House role and suggested cutting the government subsidies and contracts awarded to the billionaire's companies. So how did the partnership between Musk and Trump collapse? And what may come next for the two men often described as the world's richest and the world's most powerful, respectively? A few months before the war of words between Musk and Trump erupted, the two seemed like an inseparable political force. Musk had spent nearly $200m to elect Trump to a second term in 2024. Days after his successful election, Trump responded by appointing Musk to lead a newly created government cutting agency, called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Even the name of the department reflected the leeway that the billionaire investor had in Trump's administration. The word 'doge' refers to an internet meme of a dog, favoured by Musk, that became popular in 2010. In the early weeks of Trump's second term, Musk became one of the most prominent figures in the administration – and a lightning rod for public criticism. Under his leadership, DOGE sacked thousands of federal employees and gutted various agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Musk appeared so powerful that some Democrats started to refer to him as 'President Elon' to get under Trump's skin. But Trump and Musk presented a united front. During a Fox News interview in February, the US president and his then-adviser appeared side by side and heaped praise on one another. 'He gets it done. He's a leader,' Trump said of Musk. 'I love the president. I just want to be clear about that,' Musk said of Trump. Musk, who is originally from South Africa, started espousing right-wing views over the past few years and grew vocally critical of Democrats and progressives. Those views became more prominent after he bought the social media platform Twitter, now X, in 2022. As he started to tilt rightward, he used the platform to bash irregular migration and efforts he believed aimed to police free speech, particularly with regards to identity politics and the COVID-19 pandemic. Even during Musk's political realignment, however, he and Trump exchanged stern criticism. For example, in July 2022, Musk posted that Trump was getting to be 'too old to be chief executive of anything', much less the presidency. He also initially backed Trump's Republican rival in the 2024 presidential race, Ron DeSantis, even hosting the Florida governor's campaign launch on X. But the failed assassination attempt against Trump would cement Musk's shift in allegiance. After a bullet grazed Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, Musk announced he would 'fully endorse' the Republican leader. He even joined Trump for a return to Butler in September of last year. The cliche in politics is that there are no permanent enemies or permanent allies, only permanent interests. That appears to be the case for Trump, who has a history of firing advisers and disavowing former friends. Musk is only the latest high-profile rupture – and one that might not come as a surprise to political observers. The unravelling of Trump's 'bromance' with Musk comes at the tail end of a rocky few months, as rumours swirled about closed-door clashes between the billionaire and the president's inner circle. In April, Musk announced that he would be spending less time at DOGE. By that time, his role appeared to be diminishing, with the billionaire no longer dominating headlines or regularly appearing in the Oval Office. Late in May, Musk criticised the White House-backed tax and budget proposal, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told the TV programme CBS Sunday Morning. The bill cuts electric vehicle (EV) subsidies that boost Musk's Tesla car company. But Musk has maintained his opposition to the bill lies in its increases to the national debt and its byzantine provisions: The bill clocks in at more than 1,000 pages. The notoriously confrontational Trump, who had pinned his vision for the economy on the bill, kept his cool amid Musk's early criticisms. He even acknowledged to reporters, 'I'm not happy about certain aspects of [the bill].' The two men made a public appearance together afterwards in the Oval Office, where Trump celebrated the end of Musk's role as a special government employee. Even then, Trump insisted that Musk was 'not really leaving' his team. Once out of the government, though, Musk not only voiced discontent with the budget bill; he appeared to be lobbying against it. The bill had narrowly passed in the House of Representatives, only to face similarly steep odds in the Senate. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,' Musk wrote on X on Monday. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.' The US president shot back on Thursday, starting with an appearance in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. ' I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here,' Trump said. ' He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem.' Trump told the assembled reporters that Musk's reaction was a backlash to his EV policies. He also speculated that Musk would have preferred to stay in the White House. ' I'll be honest, I think he misses the place,' Trump said. ' It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome. We have it with others, too. They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour's gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile.' Afterwards, Trump took his criticisms to his social media platform, Truth Social. 'Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' Trump wrote in a social media post. All the while, Musk had been posting on social media, criticising Trump's bill and taking credit for his re-election campaign. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk wrote. 'Such ingratitude.' What happens next remains unclear. Although Musk has gained popularity within the Republican base, his political rise was partly due to his association with Trump. He may now find himself loathed by both Democrats and Trump loyalists. The US president, on the other hand, has a track record of surviving public scandals, including criminal charges. Trump has also shown apparent willingness to use the government's power against his rivals, most recently ordering an investigation into the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. Already, Trump has warned of risks to Musk's businesses, including the rocket company SpaceX and the communications firm Starlink. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump wrote. Still, Musk can also hurt Trump's agenda. In his inauguration speech, Trump envisioned planting a US flag on Mars, but on Thursday, Musk said he plans to decommission a SpaceX rocket that the US uses to reach the International Space Station, as retaliation for Trump's words. Musk could also align with fiscally conservative lawmakers to block Trump's signature tax bill in the Senate. Despite Musk going on the offensive against Trump on Thursday, the US president used one of his later social media posts to shift the focus to his One Big Beautiful Bill. 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It's a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'If this Bill doesn't pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that.'
