US, Israeli and Qatari officials met in New York on Sunday as part of an effort to restore relations after an Israeli airstrike on Hamas officials in Doha in September, a White House official said.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with David Barnea – the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency – and a senior Qatari official. Witkoff hosted the meeting, said a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The talks come as the Trump administration tries to get regional allies such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel. Such a coalition would help advance Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, but Israel’s strike in Qatar and military operations in Gaza have hampered efforts.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Saturday that the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were passing through a “critical moment”.
There is “a lot of uncertainty” about stability in the Middle East as deadly Israeli strikes continue to shake the fragile truce in Gaza and Lebanon and Iran’s dispute with the US remains unresolved, he also told a Doha forum on Sunday.
Axios was the first to report on Sunday’s meeting in New York.
Israel’s attack on Doha, the capital of Qatar, targeted the leader of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that attacked Israel in October 2023 and sparked the Gaza war. The attack in Doha drew rare criticism of Israel’s leaders from the White House and worried neighbors in the Gulf, Qatar, home to the largest US military base in the Middle East.
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