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South China Morning Post
02-07-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
A win for Hong Kong? Hotel offers rooms celebrating city's football team
Ever wanted to spend the night with the Hong Kong football team? Well, here's your chance. The city's football bosses have teamed up with the Park Lane Hong Kong hotel to create three themed guestrooms, and a photography exhibit capturing important moments from the team's history. Fans can go to sleep under the watchful gaze of their heroes, with their heads on Football Association of Hong Kong, China (HKFA) pillows and with branded slippers to keep their feet warm. The question, of course, is which one would you pick? The Dragon in Red Premium Room, which takes its inspiration from Hong Kong's first game at Kai Tak Stadium, when 42,000 watched the win over India? The 'Dragon in Red Premium Room' at the Park Lane. Photo: HKFA Or, for the serious supporter, there is the We Are the Hong Kong Boys Family Room, a chance to get into the spirit of things ahead of next week's East Asian Football Championship in South Korea.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Qatar's US influence strategy goes much deeper than you think
In the long history of foreign influence in Washington, few countries have played the game with the same audacity as Qatar. Flush with natural gas wealth and unchecked ambition, this tiny Gulf monarchy has spent two decades embedding itself into the American system — buying influence across academia, media, and now the highest levels of government. With President Trump back in the White House, that investment is bearing fruit. One of the clearest and most brazen examples came in the form of the luxury jet, valued at over $400 million, reportedly offered as a gift to the Trump presidential library after his term ends. The timing and scale raised eyebrows even among seasoned diplomats. It was Pam Bondi, who served as a registered foreign agent for Qatar, who reviewed and approved the legal framework for the deal. This isn't just optics—it appears to be a bribe, wrapped in diplomatic niceties. And now that Trump is president again, the question of what Qatar expects in return is no longer theoretical. But the jet is only the beginning. In addition to the Attorney General, several key Trump allies have close financial or lobbying ties to Doha: Although Trump senior political adviser Susie Wiles never worked for Qatar, she worked at a firm that lobbied for its embassy. Kash Patel, a Trump national security insider, reportedly consulted for Qatar-linked interests. Steve Witkoff, a longtime Trump associate, sold his struggling Park Lane Hotel in 2023 to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund for $623 million. This isn't diplomacy — it's leverage, cultivated within a president's inner circle. This isn't about Trump. Qatar's influence campaign began long before his return to the White House. From 2001 to 2021, U.S. universities received $13 billion in foreign donations. Qatar alone contributed $4.7 billion, far more than any other country. Much of that went to Middle East studies programs, many accused of promoting anti-Israel narratives and enabling a rise in antisemitism on campuses. That influence has now spilled into Congress. Add the $256 million Qatar has spent on lobbying since 2016 — ranking it seventh globally — and a clearer picture emerges of a foreign government shaping U.S. policy through money and access. But it's not just how much Qatar spends — it's what it supports. Qatar is the chief financial backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group designated as a terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. That backing helped trigger the 2017 Gulf blockade. It also remains the principal patron of Hamas, which murdered over 1,200 Israelis — mostly civilians — on Oct. 7, 2023. As the world recoiled, Hamas leaders living in luxury in Doha celebrated, untouched and unrepentant. Qatar has hosted Hamas leadership since at least 2012 while claiming neutrality. Then there's Al Jazeera, Qatar's state media empire. Its English-language service projects professionalism to Western audiences, but its Arabic broadcasts amplify Hamas propaganda, attack U.S. allies, and promote radicalism. Gulf states cited the network as a central reason for the 2017 rupture. Qatar also funded extremist groups during the Syrian civil war, fragmenting the opposition and radicalizing the conflict. Now, with a new regime in Damascus led by a former jihadist turned 'statesman,' Qatar is again positioning itself as a 'neutral broker.' It has lobbied for and helped alongside Saudi Arabia secure U.S. sanctions relief for 'new Syria.' The irony is stark: the same state that fueled the conflict now seeks to rehabilitate the forces it once empowered, cloaking ambition in diplomacy. Meanwhile, Qatar's ties to Iran — with whom it shares the world's largest natural gas field — have allowed it to serve as a go-between with Tehran. In practice, this 'diplomacy' has delayed pressure on Iran's nuclear program, giving it space to advance. Given Qatar's financial ties to Trump insiders such as Witkoff, one must ask: Whose interests are truly being served? Even more troubling are reports that leaks about potential Israeli strikes on Iran during Trump's first term may have come from officials linked to Qatar-friendly networks. Now, Trump's calls for Israeli restraint have prompted speculation in Jerusalem: Is Qatar's voice echoing from the White House? Qatar understands the American media environment, too. It has ramped up outreach to conservative outlets, including Fox News, knowing its influence over Trump supporters and Trump himself. Doha isn't betting on diplomacy, but on narrative control. The stakes are enormous. If a foreign regime with a record of backing terrorists and destabilizing allies can shape U.S. policy through money, media, and access, the question isn't whether Qatar is dangerous — it's whether we're still capable of recognizing foreign interference when it happens in plain sight. Trump's return to the Middle East last month was billed as a signal that America is open for business. But, in a region fluent in transactional politics, it may be read another way — that American favor is for sale. Igor Desyatnikov is a global macro fund manager and a graduate student in political science and international security at Harvard University with a focus on the post-Soviet space. He contributes to Geopolitical Monitor on foreign policy and security issues. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump's top envoy bit off more than he could chew
Donald Trump's chief negotiator has too much on his plate to handle talks with Iran, a former head of Israel's national security council has suggested. Steve Witkoff, described as the 'everything negotiator', will fly to Oman on Saturday for talks with Iranian officials over Tehran's nuclear programme. However, on Friday the 68-year-old met Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the war in Ukraine, and has also been working on a hostage release deal in Gaza. 'Witkoff is involved in two other major talks [besides Iran] – he's constantly having to think about Gaza and the hostages, as well as Ukraine,' said Giora Eiland. 'He may be highly talented, but the nuclear issue is a highly technical matter.' The retired major general, who often held high-level discussions on Iran's nuclear programme, added: 'It would also help to have experience of Iran's sophisticated and manipulative negotiating technique.' Those close to Mr Witkoff – a former real-estate mogul whose biggest deal before his new role was the $632 million sale of New York's Park Lane Hotel – testify to boundless energy, hard-headedness and a deft touch for diplomacy. In an interview with Tucker Carlson last month, the man who said he 'wanted to be' Donald Trump when the pair first met demonstrated a touch of imaginative sympathy possibly beyond the president. You could talk to Hamas, Mr Witkoff said, when you realised its members 'wanted to live' and were not 'ideologically intractable'. He said: 'I believe they strap on the suicide vests onto young kids who don't know what they're doing.' Even still, some of the progress that earned him the title ambassador at large has started to fade. The ability to consider the position of each party in a negotiation is not the only one needed for a man in Mr Witkoff's shoes. You also need time – lots of it – and expertise. Ukrainian officials were furious with Mr Trump's envoy when, in the same interview, he appeared not to know the names of the four regions recently occupied by Russia ('Crimea and Donbas' he said, referring to Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson). Defenders of Mr Witkoff argue his role is big picture, not obsessing over the details. At times, Mr Witkoff, who is Mr Trump's golfing partner, has admitted to the challenges of his multi-faceted role. 'Maybe that's just me getting duped,' he told the Israeli news channel i24 of a moment when he thought Hamas had agreed to a deal. He faces a challenge on Iran, with Mr Trump issuing a two-month deadline to secure a deal limiting Tehran's ability to construct a nuclear bomb. The UN mechanism allowing for the imposition of heavy 'snap-back' sanctions, from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, expires in October. Ahead of the talks, the president deployed at least six B-52 bombers to the Diego Garcia air base on the Chagos Islands. He has said he thinks 'Iran is going to be in great danger' if the negotiations fail. Tehran has signalled that it is open to a deal, with Seyed Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, writing in the Washington Post that it could unleash a 'trillion-dollar' opportunity for US businesses. However there are splits in the US national security team over what kind of agreement is needed. Some agree with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, that only a full dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme is acceptable – and a military strike should follow if one is not forthcoming. 'There is an ocean of space between saying that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon and that Iran's nuclear programme must be 'dismantled' like Libya's. There is a risk that the US side, which currently lacks clear expertise and a defined endgame, will be out-negotiated by an Iranian side that has both,' Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the New York Times. In his Carlson interview, Mr Witkoff spoke less ambitiously of a 'verification programme' to prevent Tehran from taking the final steps towards the bomb. The envoy is not the first US official to regularly undertake 'whirlwind' diplomacy trips across the Middle East. Antony Blinken, the former Democrat secretary of state, regularly shuttled between Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and Israel. But Mr Witkoff's peace-making agenda is wider still, and he appears to be operating more out on a limb as fears grow that a lack of experience and pressure from the White House could lead to unsatisfying outcomes across his portfolio. At a meeting with Putin last month, he was kept waiting for several hours by the Russian president. On Friday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, downplayed any chance of a breakthrough in a brief interview. The meeting was largely an opportunity for Putin to share Russia's perspective and would take 'as long as the president needs', he said. Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russia Today, described Mr Peskov as wearing a 'wide smile' as he talked to journalists. Witkoff was criticised online for holding his right hand respectfully over his heart as Putin approached him. 'I liked him,' he said of Putin in his interview with Carlson, describing the Russian dictator as 'gracious to accept me'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
How Trump's top envoy bit off more than he could chew
Donald Trump's chief negotiator has too much on his plate to handle talks with Iran, a former head of Israel's national security council has suggested. Steve Witkoff, described as the 'everything negotiator', will fly to Oman on Saturday for talks with Iranian officials over Tehran's nuclear programme. However, on Friday the 68-year-old met Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the war in Ukraine, and has also been working on a hostage release deal in Gaza. 'Witkoff is involved in two other major talks [besides Iran] – he's constantly having to think about Gaza and the hostages, as well as Ukraine,' said Giora Eiland. 'He may be highly talented, but the nuclear issue is a highly technical matter.' The retired major general, who often held high-level discussions on Iran's nuclear programme, added: 'It would also help to have experience of Iran's sophisticated and manipulative negotiating technique.' Those close to Mr Witkoff – a former real-estate mogul whose biggest deal before his new role was the $632 million sale of New York's Park Lane Hotel – testify to boundless energy, hard-headedness and a deft touch for diplomacy. In an interview with Tucker Carlson last month, the man who said he 'wanted to be' Donald Trump when the pair first met, demonstrated a touch of imaginative sympathy possibly beyond the president. You could talk to Hamas, Mr Witkoff said, when you realised its members 'wanted to live' and were not 'ideologically intractable'. He said: 'I believe they strap on the suicide vests onto young kids who don't know what they're doing.' Even still, some of the progress that earned him the title ambassador at large has started to fade. The ability to consider the position of each party in a negotiation is not the only one needed for a man in Mr Witkoff's shoes. You also need time – lots of it – and expertise. Ukrainian officials were furious with Mr Trump's envoy when, in the same interview, he appeared not to know the names of the four regions recently occupied by Russia ('Crimea and Donbas' he said, referring to Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson). Defenders of Mr Witkoff argue his role is big picture, not obsessing over the details. At times, Mr Witkoff, who is Mr Trump's golfing partner, has admitted to the challenges of his multi-faceted role. 'Maybe that's just me getting duped,' he told the Israeli news channel i24 of a moment when he thought Hamas had agreed to a deal. He faces a challenge on Iran, with Mr Trump issuing a two-month deadline to secure a deal limiting Tehran's ability to construct a nuclear bomb. The UN mechanism allowing for the imposition of heavy 'snap-back' sanctions, from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, expires in October. Ahead of the talks, the president deployed at least six B-52 bombers to the Diego Garcia air base on the Chagos Islands. He has said he thinks 'Iran is going to be in great danger' if the negotiations fail. Tehran has signalled that it is open to a deal, with Seyed Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, writing in the Washington Post that it could unleash a 'trillion-dollar' opportunity for US businesses. However there are splits in the US national security team over what kind of agreement is needed. Some agree with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, that only a full dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme is acceptable – and a military strike should follow if one is not forthcoming. 'There is an ocean of space between saying that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon and that Iran's nuclear programme must be 'dismantled' like Libya's. There is a risk that the US side, which currently lacks clear expertise and a defined endgame, will be out-negotiated by an Iranian side that has both,' Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the New York Times. In his Carlson interview, Mr Witkoff spoke less ambitiously of a 'verification programme' to prevent Tehran from taking the final steps towards the bomb. The envoy is not the first US official to regularly undertake 'whirlwind' diplomacy trips across the Middle East. Antony Blinken, the former Democrat secretary of state, regularly shuttled between Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and Israel. But Mr Witkoff's peace-making agenda is wider still, and he appears to be operating more out on a limb as fears grow that a lack of experience and pressure from the White House could lead to unsatisfying outcomes across his portfolio. At a meeting with Putin last month, he was kept waiting for several hours by the Russian president. On Friday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, downplayed any chance of a breakthrough in a brief interview. The meeting was largely an opportunity for Putin to share Russia's perspective and would take 'as long as the president needs', he said. Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russia Today, described Mr Peskov as wearing a 'wide smile' as he talked to journalists. Mr Witkoff was criticised online for holding his right hand respectfully over his heart as Putin approached him. 'I liked him,' he said of Putin in his interview with Carlson, describing the Russian dictator as 'gracious to accept me'.
Roya News
08-04-2025
- Business
- Roya News
From real estate mogul to peace broker, who is Steve Witkoff?
Steve Witkoff, a Jewish real estate mogul and philanthropist, has emerged as a significant player in global diplomacy, tasked with brokering peace in two of the world's most volatile regions: Ukraine and the Middle East. But how did a man whose career was built on luxury properties and high-end developments become one of Donald Trump's most trusted international envoys? A real estate legacy and close ties with Trump Witkoff, born and raised in the Bronx, New York, initially pursued a career in law before pivoting to real estate. He founded the Witkoff Group, a real estate firm known for luxury developments, including the Park Lane Hotel in New York and the iconic Woolworth Building. His rapid rise in the real estate industry made him one of New York's most influential businessmen. Witkoff's relationship with Donald Trump dates back to the 1980s when they first met through the real estate industry. Their connection deepened, particularly through their shared love of golf. Over the years, the two became close allies, with Witkoff emerging as a major donor to Trump's presidential campaigns. It was Trump's praise for Witkoff's business acumen and his strong commitment to 'Israel' that ultimately led to Witkoff's appointment as the US Special Envoy to the Middle East in 2024, despite his lack of formal diplomatic experience. Brokering peace in the Middle East Witkoff's role as Special Envoy has been controversial. Critics argue that his real estate background, rather than a diplomatic one, makes him ill-equipped to handle the sensitive and complex issues at stake in the Middle East. Nonetheless, his appointment is part of Trump's broader strategy to reshape US foreign policy in the region. Witkoff has garnered praise for his ability to engage with Israeli leadership, even reportedly convincing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to break his observance of the Sabbath for an urgent meeting. While this was seen as a significant diplomatic achievement, it also highlighted Witkoff's unorthodox approach to diplomacy, often blurring the lines between personal relationships and statecraft. Some of Witkoff's proposals have raised significant concerns. One of the most controversial was his suggestion to develop Gaza into a luxury resort, an idea that many critics considered tone-deaf given the region's ongoing humanitarian crisis. Despite these critiques, Witkoff's close ties to both Trump and Netanyahu have helped secure his influence in these high-stakes negotiations. A key player in Ukraine Witkoff's diplomatic efforts are not confined to the Middle East. In 2024, he also played a role in mediating peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. Witkoff engaged in multiple meetings with Russian officials and reportedly gained the trust of President Vladimir Putin. Though his lack of experience in Eastern European politics raised questions, Witkoff's financial resources and vast network have made him an influential figure on the global stage. His involvement in Ukraine has been met with skepticism, particularly given his business interests and his close ties to Trump. Critics question whether his motivations are driven by personal gain or a genuine desire for peace. Nevertheless, Witkoff defends his role, stating that his pragmatic approach seeks stability and a return to normalcy in a region ravaged by conflict. Personal relationships and the role of business in diplomacy
