US President Donald Trump Holds Phone As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Reads Apology To Qatari Leadership, White House Releases Pictures

Washington DC: White House has released pictures of U.S. President Donald Trump holding the phone as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu read an apology to the Qatari Leadership for the killing of a Qatari national during an unprecedented Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha last month.

President Trump can be seen seated with the phone on his lap while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reads an apology to the Qatari leadership.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani received the apology on Monday during a joint call from Trump and Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House.

White House Statement

“As a first step, Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his deep regret that Israel’s missile strike against Hamas targets in Qatar unintentionally killed a Qatari serviceman,” a White House statement read.

“He further expressed regret that, in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty and affirmed that Israel will not conduct such an attack again in the future,” the statement added.

Qatar Statement

Qatar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed the call and said “as part of US efforts to address the repercussions of the Israeli aggression that targeted a residential neighbourhood in Doha city, which included housing for the Hamas negotiating delegation, resulting in a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar”.

“At the beginning of the call, the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed his gratitude to the US President for his efforts to achieve peace in the region, including guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression against the State of Qatar and the US commitment to its defense partnership with Qatar,” the ministry added.

The ministry further said,“For his part, the Israeli Prime Minister apologised during the call for the attack and the violation of Qatari sovereignty, which resulted in the martyrdom of Qatari citizen Badr Al-Dosari, pledging not to repeat any targeting of Qatari territory in the future.”