President Donald Trump met with Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani aboard Air Force One Saturday at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar during refueling on Trump’s voyage to Asia.
Trump called the Emir “one of the great rulers of the world” and “beloved and respected by his country.” He called the prime minister his friend and lauded the leaders for being “a very big factor” in the Middle East peace deal he brokered several weeks ago. In fact, Al Thani signed the agreement in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, on October 13, along with Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump told reporters after the meeting that they discussed peace in the region.
When asked how the meeting went, Trump said, “Great, I mean we talked about peace, we have peace in the Middle East.”
“He thinks it’s enduring. He’s never seen anything like it, and is very happy that I got involved, and he helped,” Trump added. “We had a lot of help. We had 59 countries. We have a lot of countries that are signed on. This should be an enduring peace.”
When asked what makes peace efforts different this time around, Trump said, “Everybody agrees.”
“A year ago, it would have been very tough. I think the big thing was when we took out the nuclear power of Iran. When we took out that nuclear capability, which would have happened over the next month to two months, that made a whole big difference in the Middle East; it made it possible to do the deal,” he said.
Trump said the Qataris would eventually send peacekeeping troops to Gaza.
“Yeah, they’ll do it at the time they need ’em. By the way, Israel will go in there very easily. You know that, right? Right there, you have a country. But you have the Arab countries, everybody–Muslim, Arab, Israeli–everybody’s on board,” Trump said.
“It’s been really an amazing thing. It’s a great success,” he added.
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