The revelations of improper conduct involving the International Criminal Court (ICC) continue to grow, with the Wall Street Journal recently breaking a story suggesting that Qatar promised to assist chief prosecutor Karim Khan if he brought charges against Israeli officials. Khan made a sudden rush to issue the indictments just as sexual assault accusations against him were coming to light. Qatar’s role makes the affair about more than one man’s alleged crimes – it is about the dangerousness and lack of accountability of the ICC as an institution.
Qatar is not an ICC member state. But it does host and sponsor Hamas, making its involvement with a prosecutor investigating the Gaza war deeply problematic. This may explain a strange aspect of the ICC’s arrest warrants. In addition to Israeli leaders, the ICC indicted Yahya Sinwar and two other top Hamas leaders in Gaza. It was gross moral equivalence equating Israeli leaders defending their people after the October 7 massacre with the masterminds of that crime.
The Court presented these parallel indictments as proof of its evenhandedness. Yet from the beginning, there was an obvious asymmetry: the Court indicted Israel’s top civilian leader, but ignored Khaled Mashaal and the rest of Hamas’s political leadership. When Israel mooted the warrants on Sinwar and Mohammed Deif by killing them during the Gaza war, Khan did not seek to restore balance by bringing new indictments against Hamas’s top leaders, who happen to be based in Qatar.
As the accusations against Khan began to mount, he argued it was a plot to weaken the Court, hinting at <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/icc-netanyahu-prosecutor-sexual-assault-israel-gaza-d9bedee3">Mossad involvement</a>. That appears to be, like so many charges against Israel, an exercise in projection. Qatar hired investigators in a failed attempt to discredit the employee who made the sexual assault allegations. Khan appears to have been right that there was a foreign intelligence operation surrounding these allegations, just not against him.
Khan specifically tied his warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the charges against him, urging his alleged victim to remain silent because it would undermine pending “Palestinian arrest warrants.” This, along with the emerging role of Qatar, makes it impossible to separate the scandal around Khan from the Court’s Gaza war indictments. Yet the Court has been silent about the Qatar revelations, a marked contrast to its public condemnation of a Trump administration executive order imposing sanctions on ICC officials as interference with its “independent and impartial work.”
The only action that the ICC has taken so far is disciplinary proceedings against Khan himself. The most that can happen is that he loses his job. His accuser never turned to the Dutch police because she said his official immunity would protect him. However, under the ICC’s rules, the judges could waive that immunity if they wished. The Court’s refusal to allow a criminal investigation of Khan, even as the scope of the scandal expands, demonstrates the institution&#8217;s political nature.
At the same time, the Court seems fully intent on proceeding with the Netanyahu prosecution. Such serious prosecutorial misconduct could, at least in the United States, lead to the dismissal of even factually substantiated criminal charges. Here, the evidence does not even show that the alleged crime (purposeful starvation of civilians) even occurred, let alone was committed by the accused. As the dust settles in Gaza, the lack of mass starvation becomes ever more evident.
An American prosecutor would be loath to try a case with such manifest prosecutorial misconduct (notably, senior court officials knew about the allegations against Khan at the time the indictments were made but kept it quiet for six months, when it leaked to the press). But Netanyahu is not facing a jury of his peers, but rather a panel of international judges who likely share the Court’s institutional culture.
Qatar’s involvement shows the ICC to be even more dangerous than its critics thought. The rap against the tribunal has long been that it acts like a global independent counsel – an unaccountable prosecutor with no democratic restraints. But even worse, it now appears that hostile states can coopt it as a political weapon in an ongoing conflict.
This illustrates the need for the Trump administration to take decisive action against the organization. The sanctions the Treasury Department has imposed on individual court officers have inconvenienced them but appear to have done little to fundamentally weaken the organization or change its trajectory. A body politically motivated enough to maintain the Israel warrants in the wake of the growing Khan fiasco will certainly retaliate against Trump and his top officials once they are out of office.
The administration should impose institution-wide sanctions on the tribunal and vigorously enforce them. The ICC recently got some good news as Peter Magyar, Hungary’s prime minister-elect, vowed to rejoin after it had become the first EU country to quit. Magyar prioritized the issue because he is seeking EU funding, and Brussels ties its financial support to adhering to its foreign policy. America must adopt the same tough approach, insisting that countries receiving benefits quit the Court. For Europe, pushing countries to join the ICC is a matter of ideology. For America, pushing back should be seen as a question of national security.
Eugene Kontorovich is a professor at George Mason University Scalia Law School and a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom.

NETHERLANDS-JUSTICE-ICC

The International Criminal Court Is In Bed With Our Enemies And It’s Time We Clean House

DW Opinion

Hamas

International Criminal Court

Israel

Qatar

In a startling new development surrounding the International Criminal Court (ICC), a witness statement claims that the Qatari government promised to “look after” prosecutor Karim Khan if he moved forward with arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/karim-khan-icc-prosecutor-benjamin-netanyahu-qatar-israel-7b62d474?mod=hp_opin_pos_1">reports</a>.
The accusation, which is supported by audio recordings reviewed by investigators, suggests a potential quid pro quo agreement between the Gulf state and the ICC&#8217;s top prosecutor. According to the witness statement submitted to the FBI, the promise of state protection was made while Khan was reportedly hesitant to issue the warrants.
“I want to issue the warrant, but I’m terrified to do it,” Khan told intermediaries, according to a recorded conversation cited in the report.
“If you do it, then we’ll look after you,” a voice described as linked to the Qatari state responded, according to the recording.
These revelations add to a layer of geopolitical intrigue to the scandal already engulfing Khan, who took a leave of absence in May 2025 following allegations of sexual misconduct involving a subordinate. Khan has denied the accusations and described them as part of an “orchestrated campaign” to discredit him.
Investigators are also examining whether a Qatar-linked intelligence effort sought to discredit Khan&#8217;s accuser, according to the report. The operation, involving London-based firms Highgate and Elicius Intelligence, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov/06/qatar-linked-intelligence-operation-targeted-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-alleged-victim">allegedly sought</a> to find &#8220;links&#8221; between the female accuser and Israeli intelligence.
Documents and recordings indicate the firms investigated whether the victim—a Malaysian Muslim lawyer—had a “Jewish grandmother” or a secret Israeli passport. They even scrutinized her husband’s former employment at a company with a kosher-food subsidiary, speculating that a rabbi associated with the firm could provide “cover employment” for an agent.
The witness statement claims the intelligence operation also targeted Tom Lynch, a senior American ICC official who first reported the assault allegation, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Investigators reportedly attempted to link Lynch to the “Israel political lobby” in Washington.
Khan has denied any knowledge of or involvement in the intelligence operations. His lawyer said Khan never discussed the warrants with Qatari officials prior to the warrants and “was not offered or given (and would not have sought or accepted) any ‘promise’ by any state to ‘look after’ him.”
The Qatari government has dismissed the allegations as &#8220;unfounded.&#8221;
According to the report, individuals involved in the recordings referred to their employer as &#8220;the client country&#8221; or &#8220;Q country,&#8221; with one manager reportedly clarifying: &#8220;No, it’s the state.&#8221;
The controversy comes as the ICC’s governing body has voted to advance disciplinary proceedings against Khan. A United Nations inquiry previously found a “factual basis” for the sexual misconduct claims and allegations of retaliation against staff.
As the Dutch counterterror agency (NCTV) interviews ICC officials who may have been targeted by the spying operation, the cloud over the court’s objectivity continues to darken. Critics argue that if the prosecutor’s legal decisions were influenced by promises of state protection, the integrity of the warrants against Israeli leaders—and the ICC itself—may be permanently compromised.

United Nations Security Council Meets On Ongoing War In Sudan

Qatar Promised To ‘Look After’ ICC Prosecutor If He Targeted Netanyahu, Witness Claims

Benjamin Netanyahu

Don&#8217;t fall for the propaganda: Iran is losing. They are getting scorched. 
One by one, the leaders of the Islamic Republic are being eliminated. Generals, security chiefs, regime powerbrokers. All gone. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, was dead on day one.
No biggie, right? The regime had a backup plan. They proclaimed his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, an impotent, likely gay, half-idiot mullah, as his successor. Even his daddy didn&#8217;t want that to happen.
The problem is, he has not been seen in weeks, and he may be in a coma.
Meanwhile, Iran&#8217;s command structure is shattered. The missile capacity has been slashed by 90%. Whatever is left of the regime is throwing a temper tantrum like a toddler.
So the real question isn&#8217;t why Iran is losing. The real question is why so many people in the West are pretending they aren&#8217;t.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2389-breaking-iran-s-next-leader-killed?elementPosition=0&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, was poised to step in as the new leader. He was walking around Tehran just a couple of days ago.
Last night, Larijani, who you might remember from such banger tweets as “Our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein&#8217;s island!”, is no longer among the people, among any people.
Because he&#8217;s dead.
He was killed last night in an Israeli airstrike. In addition, Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij — the internal Iranian force dedicated to murdering protesters and quashing dissent — was killed by Israel last night, along with other top members of the Basij.
And now, individual Basij checkpoints in Tehran are being struck with Israeli drones. In fact, according to the IDF intelligence head, Major General Shlomi Binder, “Their command structure is shattered; their capability stripped down to the bone. What you&#8217;re seeing launch now is whatever scraps they can still push out. That&#8217;s their ceiling.”
The United States has so severely degraded Iran&#8217;s missile capabilities that the government has been firing off, in rather desultory fashion, individual missiles, like a kid whose tantrum is ending but is still kind of sporadically kicking as he tires himself out and goes down for a nap.
On day one of this war, Iran launched 350 missiles. Today, they are down to barely double digits. Their ballistic missile capacity has been reduced by upward of 90%. How about drone launches? Same story: 800 drone launches day one, down to 75 on day 15, and even fewer yesterday. Their ballistic missile factories have been destroyed, their drone factories have been destroyed, and their nuclear facilities have been destroyed or heavily damaged.
Don&#8217;t believe me? Ask Muhanad Seloom, writing for — wait for it — Al Jazeera.
Yup. There&#8217;s a gigantic piece in Al Jazeera, Qatar&#8217;s propaganda outlet, titled “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/3/16/the-us-israeli-strategy-against-iran-is-working-here-is-why?utm_source=chatgpt.com">The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why</a>,” accurately explaining the toll this war has now taken on Iran. Remember, Qatar is a half-ally to Iran. That alone should tell you just where things stand for the Iranians. 
The Qataris, who play both sides, are now pretty clearly taking America&#8217;s side.
The article points out:
<blockquote>The picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat the previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades. &#8230; The campaign has moved through two distinct phases. The first suppressed Iran&#8217;s air defenses, decapitated its command and control, integrated its missile and drone launch infrastructure.
By March 2, US Central Command announced local air superiority over western Iran and Tehran, achieved without the confirmed loss of a single American or Israeli combat aircraft. The second phase, now underway, targets Iran&#8217;s defense industrial base, missile production facilities, dual use research centers, and the underground complexes where remaining stockpiles are stored. This is not an aimless bombing. It is a methodical campaign to ensure that what has been destroyed cannot be rebuilt.</blockquote>
What about the Strait of Hormuz? We keep hearing about that.
The chances of President Trump allowing the Strait to remain permanently closed are zero. That is not going to happen. And leaving Iran in total control of the Strait, just because Iran has a few drones and the capacity to fire them from the shoreline, is, shall we say, a short-term problem.
Soon, the Iranian government will have much larger problems, because it feels as though all of this is a prelude to action by the Iranian people themselves. President Trump noted that Iranians will soon head out into the streets when they feel more secure.
He said yesterday, “So the women had 250,000, even 500,000 people protesting a year ago, and they shot women right through the middle of the forehead with snipers. And they didn&#8217;t have to do many. About ten went down, bleeding profusely and 250 to 500,000 women went running in the other direction because they can be brave. But they’re not stupid and they have no guns. And they have snipers in buildings specifically for this reason. So a woman goes down, falling, bleeding from the head, and it doesn&#8217;t take long for that to spread. And when that spreads, that crowd dispenses. And nobody else has been able to do that to the extent that these people. These people are violent. They killed a minimum, two weeks ago, 32,000 people. And they put out a notice two days ago, ‘If you protest, if you protest, you will be shot and killed.’”
Something is going to change. The time is coming. Chief rivals to the Iranian people are being individually eliminated. Right now, the Iranian people have the Americans and the Israelis actually flying air cover for them. Yes, of course, they&#8217;re going to have to brave death to take on the regime. They’ve done it before.
But last time they did it, no help was on the way. Then, President Trump said help is on the way.
And then President Trump acted.
What happens next will be in the Iranian people’s hands.

US Using UK Military Bases For Defensive Strikes Against Iran

Don’t Believe The Propaganda: The Mullahs Are Losing

Don't Believe The Propaganda: The Mullahs Are Losing

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Ben Shapiro

Iran

Middle East

U.S. Military

<div>
In a stunning display of gaslighting on International Women’s Day, Qatari Minister of Education Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater took to social media on Sunday to deliver a sharp rebuke to the West.
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<div>
Her message? Stop trying to “liberate” Muslim women. While Al Khater framed her defiance as a stand against “sick destructive agendas” and &#8220;Hollywood-style&#8221; savior complexes, the reality on the ground in Doha tells a much darker story of state-sponsored subjugation.
</div>
<div>
Al Khater demanded that critics &#8220;leave us alone,&#8221; claiming on social media that the Islamic world is doing &#8220;just fine.&#8221; She went further, accusing Western powers of igniting wars for profit and &#8220;trafficking and raping little kids.&#8221; It is a classic authoritarian tactic: deflect from your own human rights record by hurling inflammatory, unsubstantiated accusations at the proponents of liberty.
</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WomensDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WomensDay</a> 
Happy Women’s Day to all women wherever they are, those who are striving for their families, to survive, to make this planet a better and more peaceful place.
As a Muslim woman and as an Arab woman I just want to say:
STOP 🛑 
STOP talking on our behalf 
STOP…
&mdash; لولوة الخاطر Lolwah Alkhater (@Lolwah_Alkhater) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lolwah_Alkhater/status/2030622485587071083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<div>
But for the women living under Al Khater’s government, things have been anything but &#8220;fine.&#8221; While the Minister enjoys the privilege of high office, the average Qatari woman is legally treated as a permanent minor. According to a damning 94-page 2021 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/29/qatar-male-guardianship-severely-curtails-womens-rights">report</a> from Human Rights Watch in 2021, Qatar’s &#8220;male guardianship&#8221; system masked a suffocating reality.
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<div>
In the Qatari &#8220;paradise&#8221; Al Khater defends, a woman’s life was entirely tied to a man. Want to get married? You need the permission of a male guardian. Want to study abroad on a scholarship? Get a man’s signature. Want to work in a government job—perhaps even in Al Khater’s own Ministry of Education? You’ll likely need your father’s or husband’s consent.
</div>
<div>
The stories of those living under this &#8220;peaceful&#8221; planet that the Minister speaks of are harrowing. One 32-year-old woman, &#8220;Nawal,&#8221; recounted how her brother blocked her marriage simply because he &#8220;felt powerful&#8221; and wanted to show resistance. Another woman, &#8220;Dana,&#8221; was denied an urgent vaginal ultrasound for a suspected burst ovary because she couldn&#8217;t produce a marriage license. This isn&#8217;t &#8220;liberation&#8221;; it’s a medical and civil rights hostage situation.
</div>
<div>
Furthermore, the legal deck has been stacked. A husband could easily be granted a divorce, but a woman faced years of litigation. If she &#8220;disobeyed&#8221; by working without permission or refusing sex, she could lose her financial support. Men could marry four wives without any consent from their current spouse, yet a woman could not even be the primary guardian of her own children.
</div>
<div>
When Al Khater tells the West to &#8220;stop talking on our behalf,&#8221; she is really asking the world to stop looking at the bars of the cage. Qatar wants the prestige of the international stage—hosting World Cups and educational summits—without the accountability that comes with basic human dignity.
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LEBANON-QATAR-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-CONFLICT-HEALTH

‘STOP Liberating Us’: Qatari Minister Accuses Western Powers Of ‘Trafficking And Raping Little Kids’

United States

Qatar, which supported the terrorist group Hamas and was closely allied with Iran, is trying to stop the U.S.-Israel attack on the tyrannical Iranian regime by warning of global economic consequences if the war continues.
Traditionally a close ally of Iran and a long-time financial and political patron of Hamas, Qatar is now leveraging its position as the world’s second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer to force a ceasefire that would effectively bail out the embattled regime in Tehran.
Following an Iranian drone strike on its Ras Laffan plant — an act many view as a coordinated effort to &#8220;raise the stakes&#8221; for the West — Qatar declared force majeure, halting its massive gas exports. Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/be122b17-e667-478d-be19-89d605e978ea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that if the war continues, oil will skyrocket to $150 a barrel within weeks, and every energy exporter in the Gulf will be forced to shut down production.
By framing the energy crisis as an inevitability of the US-Israeli offensive, Qatar is attempting to pivot the blame for global inflation and potential GDP contraction away from Iranian aggression and onto the Western military response.
Despite hosting a major US military base, Qatar’s loyalties remain deeply intertwined with the &#8220;Axis of Resistance.&#8221; Having <a href="https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-866913">sheltered Hamas leadership for years</a> and maintained deep economic ties with Tehran — Qatar’s ambassador to Tehran <a href="https://irannewsdaily.com/2025/12/qatar-envoy-hails-distinguished-ties-with-iran/">said</a> in December 2025, ““Qatar has important and distinguished relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and these relations are based on the principle of neighborliness, mutual respect and cooperation in all common fields” — Doha is now using the threat of &#8220;weeks to months&#8221; of energy delivery delays to pressure Washington. Al-Kaabi dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s offers of naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz, labeling the waterway &#8220;too dangerous&#8221; and effectively siding with the Iranian position that the Strait cannot function while Iran is under attack.
“This will bring down the economies of the world,” Kaabi said. “If this war continues for a few weeks, GDP growth around the world will be impacted. Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply.”
Al-Kaabi’s rhetoric suggests that Qatar is not merely a victim of the crossfire but an active participant in a diplomatic squeeze. By predicting that Asian buyers will outbid Europeans for dwindling supplies and that global supply chains will suffer a &#8220;chain reaction&#8221; of failures, Doha is sending a clear message to Western capitals: the survival of the Iranian regime is now directly linked to the stability of the global economy.
As Qatar halts its $30 billion North Field expansion and warns of long-term &#8220;liability&#8221; for other Gulf nations that continue to pump oil, it is clear that Doha is utilizing its energy dominance as a shield for its allies in Tehran.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs

Qatar Moves To Shield Iran, Warns Of Energy Shock If War Continues

Donald Trump

WASHINGTON—The State Department is shutting down a Biden-era program that allowed Afghan allies to enter the United States, citing serious concerns about President Joe Biden&#8217;s failure to follow security procedures in vetting Afghans.
The Biden administration set up the refugee program at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar, to support Afghan allies who fled their country during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Around 1,300 Afghans <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/afghan-refugees-us-camp-as-sayliyah-844d4c89?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqcmolnrTV32c1lCdvly5ZZ9yXtjEnKPg3YdJUdmDRWrcQnKpmoZZZSPb_nsx_o%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6967aa02&amp;gaa_sig=Jv4emKo41qUqizTkV659y3ZHqrpn9wYfWdpr5tECaucKk9YeZddz9KDkNS4T0q62sQHbC1EcyGQOLTiZARMLwQ%3D%3D">have been waiting</a> at the former American military base for years, in cramped living conditions, to enter the United States. Many of them have feared that they will be returned to Afghanistan, where they will be tortured and killed for working with the United States.
As of Wednesday, The Daily Wire can first report, the State Department says that the Biden administration&#8217;s failure to properly vet these Afghans, throwing standard security procedures out the window during the withdrawal, will prevent them from ultimately entering the United States. They will be sent to &#8220;a third country&#8221; — though what country this is, the State Department has not yet confirmed.
A State Department spokesperson shared that the Afghan nationals who are currently at Camp As Sayliyah &#8220;do not have a viable pathway&#8221; to the United States and that hundreds of these nationals have &#8220;derogatory information&#8221; that presents serious security concerns.
But President Donald Trump does not want these vulnerable groups of people to be forced to go back to Afghanistan &#8220;under the brutal Taliban regime,&#8221; particularly the women and girls, so the United States has presented the Afghan nationals at the camp with a &#8220;safe, third-country option for resettlement.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1027715" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-state-department-shuts-down-biden-era-afghan-refugee-program/afghan-refugees-arrive-at-dulles-airport-after-us-pulls-out-final-troops-2" rel="attachment wp-att-1027715"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1027715" class="wp-image-1027715 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1337456532-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1337456532-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1337456532-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1337456532-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1337456532.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Refugees walk through the departure terminal to a bus at Dulles International Airport after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 31, 2021, in Dulles, Virginia.  (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)</div>
The State Department says that it&#8217;s neither appropriate nor humane to keep the Camp As Sayliyah group as is, saying that a large minority of the population are women and children who are living in a confined space without much freedom to move around. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/afghan-refugees-us-camp-as-sayliyah-844d4c89?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqcmolnrTV32c1lCdvly5ZZ9yXtjEnKPg3YdJUdmDRWrcQnKpmoZZZSPb_nsx_o%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6967aa02&amp;gaa_sig=Jv4emKo41qUqizTkV659y3ZHqrpn9wYfWdpr5tECaucKk9YeZddz9KDkNS4T0q62sQHbC1EcyGQOLTiZARMLwQ%3D%3D">According to the Wall Street Journal</a>, residents at the program spend most of their time inside due to the blazing desert temperatures, typically walking around the hangars or scrolling on their phones.
State believes that moving the group to &#8220;a third country&#8221; is a &#8220;positive resolution&#8221; that will offer the Afghan nationals safety and the opportunity to start new lives — and at the same time, protect the American people.
&#8220;The United States has kept its promise to those Afghans who risked their lives to support the U.S. government during our attempts to help Afghans build a better country for themselves,&#8221; the State Department spokesperson shared.
&#8220;We have resettled roughly 400,000 Afghans since 2001,&#8221; the spokesman added. &#8220;It is now more than four and a half years since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan. It is long past time to move past this decades-long conflict, so costly in blood and treasure, and look ahead to the future.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1027709" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-state-department-shuts-down-biden-era-afghan-refugee-program/us-and-european-defence-forces-assist-in-evacuations-from-afghanistan-following-taliban-takeover-5" rel="attachment wp-att-1027709"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1027709" class="wp-image-1027709 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1234843735-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1234843735-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1234843735-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1234843735-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1234843735.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>In this handout image, Sgt. Juan Miranda, culinary specialist, 155th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, files in Afghan Special Immigrants into the dining facility, August 20, 2021, at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar. (Photo by Sgt. Jimmie Baker / U.S. Army via Getty Images)</div>
The move comes on the heels of the tragic Thanksgiving week attack on members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/lakanwal-newly-indicted-shooting-guardsmen-near-white-house-killed-sarah-beckstrom">was brought into the country</a> by the Biden administration in 2021, shot and killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and seriously injured Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe in an ambush-style attack on November 26.
Lakanwal was one of many thousands of Afghan nationals who were flown out of Afghanistan without proper vetting and put on &#8220;U.S.-controlled platforms for an eventual pathway to the United States.&#8221;
He is not the only Afghan national who has attempted to kill Americans: Abdullah Haji Zada and Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi were sentenced for intent to conduct a terrorist act in Oklahoma in October 2024, and Jamal Wali was killed in Fairfax, Virginia, after opening fire on police officers during a routine traffic stop in April 2025.
Two days after Lakanwal&#8217;s attack, and about 24 hours after President Trump pledged to dramatically shake up the United States immigration system in response, the State Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-department-orders-posts-to-refuse-visas-to-afghan-nationals?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=25&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=State+Department+Takes+Action+On+Afghan+Nationals+Following+Trump+Pledge">directed its posts</a> to refuse visas to Afghan nationals using Afghan passports.
Trump argued at the time that the “refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America.”
“As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” the president said. “Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone.”
On December 3, the president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-halts-immigration-from-19-high-risk-countries-following-national-guard-shooting">paused the processing</a> of all immigration applications for individuals from 19 “high-risk countries&#8221;: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
And in mid-December, the president <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/12/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-further-restricts-and-limits-the-entry-of-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-security-of-the-united-states/">signed a proclamation</a> expanding and strengthening entry restrictions on nationals from countries with &#8220;demonstrated, persistent, and severe deficiencies in screening, vetting, and information-sharing to protect the Nation from national security and public safety threats.&#8221;

TOPSHOT-AFGHANISTAN-CONFLICT

EXCLUSIVE: State Department Shuts Down Biden-Era Afghan Refugee Program

Afghanistan

State Department

In a recent <a href="https://x.com/joelmowbray/status/1999584250774061488?s=46&amp;t=ghpHusspWPjTMisXwpsMaA">podcast episode</a>, Tucker Carlson <a href="https://x.com/joelmowbray/status/1999584250774061488?s=46&amp;t=ghpHusspWPjTMisXwpsMaA">asked</a>, “Where do Christians feel more comfortable in Qatar or Israel?” If his foolish comments weren’t so dangerous, they would almost be laughable.
Carlson said,
<blockquote>But if the deeper question is, “Where do Christians feel more comfortable in Qatar or Israel?”, I mean, it&#8217;s sort of hard to know what people actually think. So maybe the best way to measure that is by where they live. So there are twice as many Christians living in Qatar as there are in Israel. Twice as many. At least twice as many. Did you know that? Again, not promoting Qatar. I&#8217;m not moving there. But there are twice as many Christians living there. So if it&#8217;s like an ISIS state where people are beheaded for proclaiming the name of Jesus, why are there twice as many in Qatar as there are in Israel? And why are there so many Christian churches in Qatar? All, or at least most, on land granted to them by the government. Again, not promoting Qatar, just saying if you&#8217;re telling me that this is a country whose values are so far from mine that even to go there is a crime of some kind, you&#8217;re lying. Or we have very different values. Extremely different values. So why are they telling me that?</blockquote>
His words are lies in sheep’s clothing. He is defending a regime that has made its name not on religious freedom, but for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood — which the Trump administration is in the process of designating a terror group.
Carlson, who has spent two years attacking my home of Israel, based his argument on the fact that more Christians live in Qatar than in Israel.
Yes, there are roughly twice as many Christians in Qatar as in Israel — about 400,000 versus 188,000. But let’s get the facts straight. The Christians living in Qatar are almost entirely migrant workers, people who have no legal rights as citizens.
Carlson asks, “And why are there so many Christian churches in Qatar?”
There are exactly six government-sanctioned churches in Qatar. Six churches serving hundreds of thousands of people. And to make it even worse, they are all right next to each other under the close supervision of the government.
To be clear, it is illegal for Qatari citizens to convert from Islam to Christianity, and Qataris <a href="https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/qatar/">are not allowed</a> to enter Christian churches. In fact, every person entering a church in Qatar must submit an ID.
The migrant workers who do attend often live and work under conditions that have been widely condemned as modern-day slavery.
Contrast that with Israel, a country where Christians are fully recognized citizens, including my community of indigenous Aramean Maronite Christians. We vote, we serve in the military, and we even hold elected office in the Knesset. Israel’s Christians are not confined to a single gated area or monitored by state authorities. We are free to worship openly, participate in society, and contribute to the nation’s cultural and political life.
There are more Baptist churches in Israel (17) than there are total churches in Qatar. In fact, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the native Christian communities are growing. Carlson took the only possible data points to show anything positive about Christian existence in Qatar and still got it all wrong.
As a Christian Israeli working to inspire the next generation of believers in our homeland, I can say with confidence: Israel protects religious freedom in ways that Qatar can only dream of.
Qatari Christians live in fear, are under constant surveillance, and have no path to citizenship or full participation in society.
Christians must understand where true freedom exists and where it is merely an illusion sold by regimes with an agenda and their influencer mouthpieces.
For Israel’s Christians, faith and citizenship go hand in hand. For Christians in Qatar, faith comes at the price of subjugation, invisibility, and in many cases, abuse.
We must call out lies like this, not just for Israel’s sake, but for the safety and understanding of Christians worldwide. Truth matters, and it will set you free.
* * *
Shadi Khalloul, founder and chairman of the Israeli Christian Aramean Association, is one of Israel’s most compelling voices for coexistence, minority rights, and Christian identity in the Middle East.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Aerial view of the West Bank cornice business center in Doha, Qatar

I’m A Christian Living In Israel. Tucker Carlson Is Wrong About Qatar.

I'm A Christian Living In Israel. Tucker Carlson Is Wrong About Qatar.

Christians

Opinion

Religion

Trump Administration

Tucker Carlson

The Trump administration has officially pulled back the curtain on the staggering amount of foreign influence-buying occurring on American college campuses. This week, the Department of Education launched a new transparency portal — <a href="https://www.foreignfundinghighered.gov/">foreignfundinghighered.gov</a> — revealing that adversarial and &#8220;illiberal&#8221; regimes have funneled billions into the very institutions currently serving as ground zero for anti-American and anti-Israel radicalism.
The data is damning. China, including Hong Kong, has pumped nearly $6 billion into U.S. higher education, targeting elite institutions like Harvard, New York University, and Stanford. <a href="https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/media/press-releases/transfer-portal-news-china-s-money">According</a> to House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, this isn&#8217;t philanthropy — it’s a calculated effort to &#8220;transfer critical research, influence, and academic talent&#8221; to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
While the Trump administration is now prioritizing enforcement, the report highlights a catastrophic lapse under the previous administration. Data has revealed that foreign donations surged during the Biden years, with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) noting that the &#8220;floodgates opened,&#8221; creating what experts call a &#8220;national security crisis.&#8221;
Furthermore, the scale of the deception is massive. While the portal lists billions in disclosed funds, previous reports suggest that hundreds of universities have illegally withheld information on an estimated $13 billion in additional contributions.
It is no coincidence that the universities receiving the most cash from hostile actors are the same ones currently exploding with antisemitic protests and &#8220;illiberal&#8221; faculty agendas.
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Qatar, a nation that harbored Hamas leadership, remains the top contributor with over $6.5 billion in total funding.</li>
<li>Cornell University alone took $2.3 billion from the Qatari regime.</li>
<li>Northwestern and Texas A&amp;M have also raked in hundreds of millions from the Middle Eastern state.</li>
</ul>
President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/transparency-regarding-foreign-influence-at-american-universities/">executive order</a> in April 2025 that required institutions of higher education to “report significant sources of foreign funding,” while noting, “But, because section 117 has not been robustly enforced, the true amounts, sources, and purposes of foreign money flowing to American campuses are unknown. From 2010 to 2016, according to one study, universities failed to disclose more than half of reportable foreign gifts. Even when foreign funding is reported, its true sources are often hidden.”
Trump pointed out that during his first term, “the Department of Education opened investigations on 19 campuses from 2019-2021, which led universities to report $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funds. Yet the prior administration undid this work, moving the Department of Education’s specialized investigatory work on foreign funds to a unit ill-equipped to perform it, undermining investigations, and hindering public access to information on foreign gifts and contracts.”

Man hold stack of US dollars.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Trump Administration Exposes Billions In Foreign Funds Going To Woke Universities

American Universities

China

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) are <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/17/us-news/elise-stefanik-demands-answers-from-kathy-hochul-about-qatar-funded-curriculum-in-nyc/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_social_handle_id=17469289&amp;utm_social_post_id=626155842&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=nypost">pressing</a> New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to explain why New York City public schools are using curriculum and instructional materials funded by Qatar and what they describe as “malign domestic actors.” The GOP lawmakers argue that the New York City Department of Education has refused to release materials related to the September 11 attacks and the October 7 Hamas massacre, leaving Hochul as the only authority able to compel transparency.
“The [NYC] DOE has refused to provide copies of teaching materials that twist the narratives of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, in Israel,” Stefanik and Comer wrote in a letter obtained by the New York Post.
The lawmakers zeroed in on $1 million from Qatar Foundation International flowing to P.S. 261 in Cobble Hill and P.S./I.S. 30 in Bay Ridge, as well as on materials from Bridging Cultures, run by Dr. Debbie Almontaser, who is also the head of the Muslim Community Network (MCN). Stefanik and Comer allege MCN has a history of downplaying Islamist violence, opposing funding for the National 9/11 Memorial &amp; Museum, and vilifying anyone highlighting radical Islam’s role in the attacks. Bridging Cultures has conducted workshops on the Hamas attacks, which the lawmakers say “erases Israeli suffering.” Combined, MCN and Bridging Cultures have collected at least $14.7 million from New York City since 2014.
“The NYC DOE partnered with Bridging Cultures to train teachers on how to speak to students about 10/7, the war in Gaza, and the anti-Israel protest movement,” Stefanik and Comer said.
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Stefanik and Comer demanded that Hochul provide contracts, copies of the curriculum, and explanations for these partnerships. Hochul’s office dismissed the letter, saying Stefanik “misunderstand[s] how New York’s education system and mayoral control operate.”
The row escalates Stefanik’s attack line against Hochul ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial race. She has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stefanik-slams-hochuls-cowardly-silence-after-mamdanis-endorsement-of-9-11-apologist">slammed</a> Hochul for supporting incoming NYC Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed Palestinian activist Aber Kawas for the State Assembly.
“Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani and now owns his latest public endorsement of radical activist Aber Kawas for New York State Assembly, a proud terrorist sympathizer and denigrator of the United States,” Stefanik said in a statement. “Kawas notoriously blamed America for 9/11 that claimed the lives of thousands of New Yorkers, citing the United States&#8217; ‘system of capitalism,’ ‘racism,’ ‘white supremacy,’ and ‘Islamophobia’ as justification for the terrorist attacks that killed New Yorkers. It is clear that Mamdani owns and controls the Worst Governor in America, Kathy Hochul, as she cowardly remains silent on the anti-American and antisemitic filth spewed by the incoming Mayor and his endorsed candidates. Kathy Hochul must condemn Mamdani’s endorsement of Kawas immediately.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)

Stefanik Demands Hochul Explain Qatar-Funded NYC School Curriculum

Congress

Elementary Schools

Elise Stefanik

James Comer

Kathy Hochul

New York City

Politics

Qatari opposition leader Sheik Khalid Al-Hail conducted his first English-language interview with staunchly conservative Australian podcast host Erin Molan, blistering the Qatari government for its support of terrorist groups around the world.
Molan asked Al-Hail, the leader of the Qatar National Democratic Party (QNDP), which advocates for a constitutional monarchy, about his movement, noting, “I would hazard a guess most people listening have never heard of such a thing, did not realize it existed. And that is for good reason, because the powers that be in Qatar don&#8217;t want the world to know that you exist.”
“Our movement started in 2010 within Qatar,” Al-Hail, who currently lives in exile in the United Kingdom, recalled, pointing out his group held a 2017 conference in Egypt where they spoke about the support of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt. “A lot of people that are affiliated with the Qatari opposition &#8230; are banned from traveling from Doha,” he stated. “Those who are outside the country have a genuine fear of prosecution. They cannot come back to the country.”
He said that in 2013, he was given a promise by the Qatari leadership, recalling that they stated, “You can come back to Doha. It will be safe. Everything will be fine.”
“And it was an absolute nightmare for me,” he said. “I went back to Doha. I&#8217;ve been tortured; I’ve been in the high-security intelligence prison for no reason. They started to accuse me of some lies. I managed to run from the country. I didn&#8217;t leave the country legally, but I managed to run outside the country because I had some influence within the regime in that time. So I left Qatar, and I established the movement in that time.”
“The way they operate is like a criminal organization just hunting and undermining people,” he declared.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/opinion/mohamed-fahmy-doha-qatar.html">reported</a> in 2016 that poet Muhammad al-Ajami was serving a 15-year sentence “after a secret trial in 2012, for ‘criticizing the emir’ in a poem that praised the Arab Spring,” adding, “Mr. Hail was jailed by the Qatari regime in 2010 and 2014, he said, and in the state security agency’s headquarters, he was beaten, deprived of sleep and electrocuted.”
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“Talk to me about why this regime is not legitimate, why they are not what they paint themselves to be in the Western world,” Molan prompted.
“They painted themselves as these peacemakers that were there to help when they themselves funded the October 7 attacks. They harbored the leaders of Hamas, yet they pretend to be the ones that care deeply about trying to create peace in a region where they are, on the other side, creating all the chaos,&#8221; she added.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not an accusation; it&#8217;s a factual information. The Qatari regime&#8217;s existence is based on terrorism,” Al Hail replied.
“The regime of Qatar are trying to undermine us in every single movement,” he continued. “They are smart. They&#8217;re spending their money to do one thing. In the West, in America, I was shocked to know a few days ago that they are promoting to some people in America that I am a front for the Qatari regime. Without saying it, they pay people to say, ‘Oh, this guy has been created by the Qatari regime to go and just pretend there is an opposition of Qatar.’ And that&#8217;s an absolute bullsh*t. What they&#8217;re trying to do is undermine every single opposition they face. They are hacking people. They are terrorizing people.”
“Talk to me about the people on the ground in Doha,” Molan suggested. “You look at the Iranian regime, over 80% minimum despise that illegal regime. They are not the legitimate leaders of Iran. Is it a similar situation in Qatar? Do the majority of people want there to be democracy? Do they want their leaders harboring terrorists?”
“Qatar has something called original Qataris,” Al-Hail explained. “And the Qataris, the migrant Qataris who came recently — like 20, 30 years ago. So Qatar, to make balance, to control the country, they replaced the original people with outsiders. &#8230; When the first democratic election happened in Qatar in 2021 — which they promised from 2013  — the whole election was based on the original Qataris. They excluded the other people. So when that happened, the majority of the seats went to the people that oppose the Qatari regime and the Qatari mentality. And what happened after? They canceled the election. They canceled the whole election. Even in the army of Qatar, they intentionally mixed foreigners with the locals because they know, for fact, that the Qatari people, the original Qatari people, they condemn the Qatari government actions.”
“The Qatari people are not Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “We are not Muslim Brotherhood. We are not Islamists. We are not extremists. It&#8217;s the regime and their affiliates. That&#8217;s the problem. So if you talk about legitimacy, let me come back to you and say, my promise to the world, this regime will not stand for long. &#8230; Renting loyalty and renting influence is temporary. It&#8217;s for today, tomorrow, and after tomorrow. But things are changing. The world is changing. Money will buy silence for a short period of time. But to stop a terrorist regime like the Qatari regime, you have to go to the source of the issue. They have an enormous access to money, and that&#8217;s the problem. So if you stop that, you stop terrorism in the world.”
“Let me get this from you now,” Molan said. “You would end every cent were you to somehow form a government in Qatar to go in and lead. Under your leadership, there would not be a cent going to Muslim Brotherhood or any Islamic extremist group, any extremist group at all. Is that what you promise?&#8221;
“What I promise to the world, I am not acting alone,” Al Hail responded. “So Qatar is a monarchy system. We appreciate that and we respect that as Qataris. We have a group from the royal family of Qatar who believe exactly what we say. For the sake of the stability of the nation, we are leading a movement now that leads to the change of what&#8217;s happening in Qatar.”
He said the U.S. military base in Doha would remain unaffected, adding, “Nothing would be changed. The only thing that would be changed is that there is no more Hamas in Doha. There is no more Muslim Brotherhood. There is no more extremists in Qatar. Our promise to the world that we will be the best solution for the West. And our money will be focused on developing our own people. We were not going to spend our money anymore to support Hamas or to support these terrorist organizations. Our movement is a peaceful movement.&#8221;
“Khalid, as someone who believes in the complete opposite of what that regime currently promotes, I hope and pray you are right. Thank you so very much. Thank you for being so brave. Thank you for fighting for what matters,” Molan stated, then concluded to her audience, “Please share with everyone because this voice needs to be amplified if we ever want to change what is happening in the Middle East and, of course, as an extension of that, because the pain that terrorism causes goes well beyond those borders.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5_sFWbOkNaE?si=qQJFlfyMEqPhTt1a" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Mercedes-Benz Sydney Women In Business Luncheon – Arrivals

Exiled Opposition Leader Tells Conservative Podcaster Qatar Operates ‘Like A Criminal Organization’

Australia

Erin Molan

Terrorism

World

President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/assuring-the-security-of-the-state-of-qatar/">signed</a> an executive order dated September 29 that promises to defend Qatar in the event of an attack, calling the U.S.-Qatar relationship an &#8220;enduring alliance.&#8221;
Trump signed the executive order three weeks after Israel killed Hamas leaders who were residing inside a building in Doha, Qatar&#8217;s capital. Trump condemned Israel for launching the attack inside Qatar, and the executive order serves as an assurance for the Arab state following the airstrike. The order was dated on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump at the White House and called Qatar&#8217;s prime minister to apologize for the precision strike.
A White House official told The Daily Wire, “As the President stated, he has assured Qatar that attacks like the recent one will not happen again on their soil. On Monday, President Trump hosted a historic trilateral phone call between the Prime Ministers of Qatar and Israel, which helped to put Israel-Qatar relations on a positive track.”
Trump&#8217;s order states that the &#8220;United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability,&#8221; the order continues.
Trump&#8217;s order recognizes Qatar&#8217;s cooperation with the United States military, as the Middle Eastern country hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East.
&#8220;The State of Qatar has hosted United States forces, enabled critical security operations, and stood as a steadfast ally in pursuit of peace, stability, and prosperity, both in the Middle East and abroad, including as a mediator that has assisted the United States’ attempts to resolve significant regional and global conflicts,&#8221; the order adds. &#8220;In recognition of this history, and in light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression, it is the policy of the United States to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack.&#8221;
Qatar has also cooperated with the United States on Trump&#8217;s 20-point plan for peace in Gaza and has urged Hamas to accept the deal. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that Trump is serious about seeing the peace deal through to the end, but added that some aspects of the deal need to be worked out, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/09/30/hamas-response-trump-gaza-plan-qatar-egypt-turkey">reported</a>.
&#8220;We and Egypt explained to Hamas during yesterday&#8217;s meeting that our main goal is stopping the war. Trump&#8217;s plan achieves the main goal of ending the war, though some issues in it need clarification and negotiation,&#8221; al-Thani said.
While Qatar has sided with the United States on some issues, the Islamic country is far from being a friend of Western ideals. Along with allowing Hamas terrorists to live inside the country, Qatar has been <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/345437-how-the-9-11-mastermind-found-safe-harbor-in-qatar/">accused</a> of giving safe harbor to one of the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Qatar also <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/saving-american-universities-requires-cracking-down-on-foreign-funding/#:~:text=But%20where%20the%20government%20of,anti%2DSemitic%20rhetoric%20can%20thrive.">funnels</a> billions of dollars to American universities while supporting Al Jazeera, a state-funded news network that has been accused of promoting anti-American propaganda on behalf of terrorists.
Trump&#8217;s order guaranteeing security for Qatar was met with harsh backlash from some of his closest allies, including conservative radio host Mark Levin and Right-wing activist Laura Loomer.
&#8220;If the leadership of Hamas in Qatar is killed by Israel, are we going to war with Israel? Wouldn’t it have been better to condition any military defense of Qatar on some basic requirements?&#8221; Levin <a href="https://x.com/marklevinshow/status/1973423747873861864">asked</a>. &#8220;For example: [turn over] the Hamas leaders; no more funding of terrorists worldwide: no more funding of Marxist-Islamist groups in the United States. This is the bare minimum.&#8221;
Loomer <a href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1973397679154553344">added</a>, &#8220;What about assuring our own safety from Qatar? Every single day, Qatar floods our country with billions of $ of funding for radical left, communist, &amp; Islamist causes on college campuses and major institutions. Qatar also financed Iran before they tried to assassinate Trump.&#8221;
During his second term, Trump has grown increasingly friendly with Qatar. The president visited the country in May during a trip to the Middle East, and he accepted a 747 jet that the Qatari government gifted to the United States. Trump said he hopes to use the Qatari aircraft in place of Air Force One.

Trump Grants Qatar A Security Guarantee, Days After Israeli Strike On Hamas

'Enduring Alliance': Trump Guarantees Qatar's Security 'Against External Attack'

President Trump totally broke open the war in Gaza and perhaps put together a workable peace plan.
President Trump has received an inordinate amount of hatred for actually being good at foreign policy. Perhaps the best thing about President Trump&#8217;s first term was his foreign policy. He has always been heterodox in his foreign policy views, and that heterodoxy has actually served him quite well, particularly in the Middle East.
He didn&#8217;t get the credit he deserved over the Abraham Accords. He has not received the credit that he deserves for his continuing support of Israel in the face of genocidal hatred and terrorism from Hamas.
And now he has somehow drawn a fascinating path to peace in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for a long time before actually going out and doing a full press conference where they unveiled President Trump&#8217;s peace plan, which has been signed on to by Israel, the United States, Qatar, all of the regional players, and by the Europeans, which is an amazing achievement for the president.
Let’s be clear: Hamas has not accepted this deal yet, but the deal totally changes the game.
Why?
Because if everybody is on the same page but Hamas, that means that Hamas is totally isolated. And Hamas has relied on the kindness of strangers. Hamas has relied for this entire war on having the public relations of Qatar on its side, of having other countries in the Middle East on its side, and of having the Europeans on its side.
Just a week ago, we were talking about how the Europeans were moving steadily and not so gradually toward declaring a Palestinian state in the aftermath of the worst terror attack on Israel in its history and the worst attack on Jews since World War II. That is how badly things were going for Israel in the PR war.
That was because there is a strong drive among the “suicidally empathetic” — as the philosopher Gad Saad has said — in Europe to side with the people who wish to destroy Western civilization.
But now President Trump has now done something incredible. He has put together a deal that is workable, a deal that has now been signed off by the Israelis and from everybody else in the region. Even the Europeans have signed off on it.
Whenever you hear that a deal has been signed off on by everyone, the inclination is to say that it is a weak deal. That&#8217;s just the reality. And indeed, when you read the deal, you could find points where certainly quibbles would be necessary.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2289-breaking-trump-unleashes-groundbreaking-gaza-plan"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
But overall, what President Trump has done here is to achieve the strategic goals of the West. He has allowed Israel to achieve its strategic goals in Gaza if Hamas were to accept this deal while allowing for a path forward.
Some points regarding the deal:
<blockquote>“Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.”</blockquote>
That’s more of a goal than it is an actual plan. Whether that goal is achieved depends on whether the rest of the plan is actually achieved.
<blockquote>“Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.”</blockquote>
That is to prevent Hamas from basically dragging out this process. If we get to 73 hours and Hamas has not handed over hostages, Israel will have every right and capacity to go back in.
<blockquote>“Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after 7 October 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.” </blockquote>
This sort of math makes me insane. It has always made me insane. It is ridiculous for any Western country to trade live terrorists for hostages.
<blockquote>“Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under the 19 January 2025 agreement.”</blockquote>
This should be a sticking point. Israel is giving a lot on this. The United Nations has been and will continue to be a tool for terrorism. It always has been. It will continue to be.
<blockquote>“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace,’ which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”</blockquote>
This is Israel&#8217;s guarantee against the possibility that Hamas immediately reconstitutes and that the aid that flows in is somehow handed over directly to a reconstituted Hamas by another name. In reality, it&#8217;ll have to be run by Tony Blair with input from the United States, because the reality is that there are not a whole hell of a lot of “Palestinian moderates.”
And this brings us to the question of the Palestinian Authority.
According to the Trump plan:
<blockquote>“This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump&#8217;s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.”</blockquote>
Let&#8217;s be real about that. It&#8217;s never going to happen. The Palestinian Authority is corrupt top to bottom. Every Arab and Jew in the region knows this. This is not a secret. The reality is the Palestinian Authority is wildly unpopular in Judea and Samaria, thanks to its incredible levels of corruption, thanks to the fact its leadership bilks the population and aid agencies out of literally billions of dollars.
The PA is never going to end up governing Gaza. They can&#8217;t even govern cities in Judea and Samaria, in Nablus and Jenin. They&#8217;re not going to govern any of these areas. So this is a pipe dream. Presumably, that pipe dream is put out there for the pleasure of various Arab nations who are signing on to President Trump&#8217;s agreement here.
<div id="attachment_979193" style="width: 870px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-979193" class="size-large wp-image-979193" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2238139190-860x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) looks on as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers remarks during a joint news conference in the State Dining Room at the White House on September 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump welcomed Netanyahu for his fourth visit to the White House, where the two leaders met to discuss the latest U.S. backed plans to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)" width="860" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2238139190-860x576.jpg 860w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2238139190-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2238139190-768x515.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2238139190.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px" />Win McNamee/Getty Images</div>
Trump’s plan is going to be dependent on decent governance. Unfortunately, it is just a fact that the vast majority of Palestinians support terrorism. There is zero, literally zero evidence that Palestinians overall do not support terrorism. Every single Palestinian poll statistic ever taken shows a vast bulk of Palestinian Arabs supporting terrorism against Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel.
<blockquote>“Hamas and other factions agree not to have any role in the governance of Gaza directly, indirectly or in any form. All military terror and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors.”</blockquote>
Why would Hamas accept the deal if they&#8217;re going to have no governance power in the Gaza Strip? Why would they give up the hostages?
Because if they have no hope, if it turns out that even their terror masters in Qatar aren’t behind them &#8230; But let&#8217;s be clear: Qatar plays both sides of the table. They always have. Qatar could have put pressure on Hamas to give up the hostages. On October 8, they could have.
Qatar did not do that. Instead, Qatar sponsored Hamas. Qatar apparently has joined in on the process of isolating Hamas. That is the only reason why this has happened and it is worthwhile noting the reason that Qatar did that, at least in part, is because they are quite concerned that if this war continues, Israel might say, you know what? It’s not worth it anymore. They go into Qatar and they kill Hamas members in Qatar.
And Qatar does not wish to be in the crossfire at this point. So that unsuccessful strike that Israel launched directly into Qatar to kill Hamas&#8217;s leadership may have been tactically unsuccessful, but it was strategically successful in putting pressure on Qatar to join the international consortium dedicated to ending Hamas rule over the Gaza Strip.
That would be the only reason why Hamas would give up the ghost here.
<blockquote>“The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza.”</blockquote>
What&#8217;s important there is that this international stabilization force will not be a nontransparent force. It will have coordination, including Israel. Israel is simply not going to give up all eyes on the ground and trust the Egyptians and Jordanians, all of whom have been acting, by the way, in tacit consultation with Hamas throughout this conflict.
<blockquote>“While Gaza redeployment development advances, and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.”</blockquote>
Notice what that isn&#8217;t. That is not a recognition of a Palestinian state. That is not even a recognition of a real pathway toward a Palestinian state. It is a recognition that if gigantic changes happen on the ground and the Palestinian Authority somehow moderates and somehow does all of the reform, and that if all of these hurdles are jumped, then maybe at some point there&#8217;s a pathway to a Palestinian state.
What this doesn&#8217;t do is say there must be a Palestinian state in order for there to be a settlement in Gaza.
The Trump administration is making no bones about that. And now neither is the international community.
All in all, it’s a very good start.

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