US President Donald Trump welcomed the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar aboard Air Force One while refueling at Al-Udeid Air Base.
The summit comes ahead of a five-day diplomatic trip to eastern Asia.
“The Emir is one of the great rulers of the world… and the Prime Minister has been my friend… What we’ve done is incredible-peace in the Middle East,” he wrote. “You’re going to have peace in the Middle East. This is real peace. It’s never happened before.”
Sitting between the Qatari figures, Trump said, “The Prime Minister has been my friend, and a friend to the world. We’ve done a lot together especially in the last year, what we’ve done is incredible. Peace to the Middle East. and they were a very big factor in that.”
“You have a safe Middle East right now, and you’re gonna keep it that way for a long time, for a very long time. “
Answering reporters’ questions, Trump added, “We have peace in the Middle East. That’s all we have. Great peace in the Middle East.”
He added, “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.”
About the ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group, Trump said that he is confident that it will hold.
If the ceasefire does not hold, however, “Hamas will be not hard to take care of,” he added. “It will he very quickly. But I I hope it holds for Hamas, too, because you know, they they gave us their word on something. … So I I think it’s going to and if it doesn’t then they’ll have a a very very big problem.”