Donald Trump is in Qatar for the next leg of his four-day Middle East tour, where he has signed deals on defence and aviation. Earlier, he met Syria’s President Ahmed al Sharaa – a man once imprisoned by the US. Listen to the latest episode of The World podcast below as you scroll.
Wednesday 14 May 2025 16:57, UK
Marco Rubio has left the Trump team in Doha and is now heading to Turkey.
The US secretary of state will meet NATO foreign ministers tomorrow in Antalya.
He is due to travel on to Istanbul on Friday, where the US State Department says he will attend talks with counterparts to discuss the war in Ukraine.
The US signed an “historic $1.2trn economic commitment” in Qatar, the White House says.
The agreements include a $96bn deal with Qatar Airways to buy up to 210 Boeing airplanes, the fact sheet said
It adds that defence, intelligence, and infrastructure engineering firm Parsons has also won 30 projects worth up to $97bn in Qatar.
They also included a statement of intent that could lead to $38bn in investments at Qatar’s Al Udeid air base and other air defence and maritime security capabilities, it said.
Our business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso notes that the figures in the White House fact sheet don’t quite add up to $1.2trn. Watch his thoughts below…
A little earlier, Donald Trump and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed two agreements between the two countries on aviation and defence (see our 15.08 post).
The emir said the deals were taking the relationship between the two countries to “another level”.
The first agreement was a $200bn deal for Qatar to buy 160 jets from US manufacturer Boeing – which Trump said was the largest single order in the company’s history.
The other document was on defence, the details of which have not yet been revealed.
The governor of Qatar’s central bank met with Elon Musk in Doha today to discuss developments in global finance and investment, the bank said on X.
Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani met with Musk, owner of Space X, Tesla and X, on the sidelines of Donald Trump’s visit to Qatar.
By Alistair Bunkall, Middle East correspondent
Donald Trump’s visit to Qatar today is an opportunity for substantive talks on Gaza.
Many of the key players will be in the same city. The Hamas leadership is based in Doha, the Qataris have been one of the main mediators, Israel has sent a small delegation and the US president and his team will be on the ground.
As the diplomatic players are converging, Israeli attacks on Gaza are intensifying – more than 60 people have been killed in the past 24 hours according to local health officials, some of them in two hospitals bombed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The IDF said it was targeting Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, but there is still no confirmation of his death.
Israel is still pushing a plan to enable Gazans to leave “voluntarily”, an idea legitimised by Trump earlier in the year when he said he wanted to “own Gaza”.
There is growing international opposition to this, and Israel’s plan to expand its campaign.
The foreign ministers of Turkey, the US and Syria will meet in southern Turkey tomorrow to discuss details of Donald Trump’s pledge to lift sanctions on Syria, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan has said.
Yesterday, Trump said he would order the lifting of sanctions on Syria at the behest of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in what marked a major US policy shift.
Now, Fidan has said there will be an informal NATO foreign ministers’ involving himself, Marco Rubio and Asaad Hassan al Shibani in the southern Turkish province of Antalya to discuss this tomorrow.
He said the lifting of sanctions would enable financial flows, investment and infrastructure development in Syria, which was politically fractured and left in widespread ruins by the war.
Erdogan has repeatedly urged Trump to rescind the US sanctions on Syria since the president returned to the White House in January.
One theme of Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East so far has been his propensity to dish out lavish praise for the Arab leaders he’s meeting.
Making comments just now alongside the Emir of Qatar, Trump gushed while comparing him to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who he met yesterday.
“We came from Saudi Arabia, where we have another great man over there that’s a friend of yours,” he said, addressing Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
“You two guys get along so well and like each other, you remind me a little bit of each other, if you want to know the truth. Both tall, handsome guys that happen to be very smart.”
Trump has form for this kind of flattery. A little earlier today, Trump called Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa, who he met in Saudi Arabia this morning, a “young, attractive guy”.
Following the signing of agreements on aviation and defence, the Emir of Qatar and Donald Trump give short statements.
“After signing these documents, we are going to another level of relationship between Qatar and the United States,” Sheikh Tamim al Thani says.
Trump then takes over, saying this has been a “very interesting couple of hours”.
“We discussed the world,” he says. “We discussed Russia and Ukraine, where you’ve been a tremendous help in so many different ways.
“We certainly discussed Iran, where it’s been, really, an interesting situation. I have a feeling it’s going to work out.”
On the aviation deal signed between the two countries, Trump says it’s the largest ever order of such jets, worth over $200bn for 160 Boeing jets.
Donald Trump has arrived at a signing ceremony with the Emir of Qatar.
After taking his place at the table, a speaker announces the two leaders will sign an aviation agreement to purchase jets from US Boeing.
The next agreement is on defence, which includes a statement of intent between the two countries. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth joins to sign this agreement.
Watch along at the top of this page. We’ll also be providing text updates.
While we wait for Donald Trump, we’ve just heard from the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who says he expects the president’s visit to the Middle East to soon switch away from business and towards more political issues.
The highlight of Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday was the huge £450bn deal he signed encompassing energy, defence, tech and aerospace investments.
Surrounded by some of the heads of the biggest US businesses, all the focus appeared to be on securing investment for America and building new economic ties between the two countries.
But Robert Jordan, who served as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia under George W Bush, says Trump’s visit to Qatar today will have more political issues on the agenda than business.
“Qatar has amazing relationships,” he tells presenter Jayne Secker. “They’ve been criticised to some degree for some of these relationships, but they’re turning out to be quite valuable.
“Not just their relationship with Hamas, but more importantly, I think, with Iran.
“Qatar and Iran are business partners and [has] the world’s largest underwater gas field. They deal with each other on a daily basis. I think if we’re going to have any kind of breakthrough on the nuclear portfolio, Qatar will play a role in this.
“I think they’re also quite well positioned to assist in reintegrating, if you will, Syria – and perhaps even Lebanon – into a broader Middle East that is aiming for some degree of stability.”
Watch the full interview with Robert Jordan below.
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Trump live: President signs deals with Qatar on defence and aviation – then gushes over 'handsome' leader – Sky News
