United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Qatar on Wednesday, UAE state news agency WAM reported, in a show of solidarity a day after Israel launched an airstrike targeting Hamas officials in Doha.
President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Qatar on Wednesday, UAE state news agency WAM reported, in a show of solidarity a day after Israel launched an airstrike targeting Hamas officials in Doha.
According to an official with knowledge of the matter, Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein is also expected in Doha on Wednesday, while Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is due to arrive Thursday. The visits were not previously scheduled and were described as a coordinated gesture of regional solidarity with Qatar following the Israeli strikes.
But the choreography of these high-level visits reveals less about genuine sympathy and more about domestic political optics.
The so-called “solidarity” visits are, in reality, an exercise in blatant hypocrisy. No one — not even Qatar itself — is truly mourning the Hamas officials killed in the Israeli strike. These leaders know it, their hosts know it, and the public knows it. The trips are designed to send signals back home, appeasing audiences that expect defiance toward Israel while avoiding any meaningful confrontation with it.
For years, Qatar has played host to Hamas leaders, providing them with money, political cover, and a platform. That policy has now brought the war directly to Doha’s doorstep. To express solidarity with Qatar in this moment is, in effect, to stand with a regime that knowingly sheltered terrorist leaders.
Behind the smiles and handshakes lies a hard truth: these visits are stage-managed performances, not genuine diplomacy. They are aimed solely at shaping local public opinion, not at advancing peace or stability in the region.
Reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a ministerial meeting to be held on Thursday in Paris with European, Arab and other states to discuss Gaza's post-war transition, three diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.
A Jordanian military court on Wednesday sentenced nine defendants to between three and 15 years in jail over an alleged Muslim Brotherhood-linked plot to destabilise the country, a case that led authorities to outlaw the kingdom’s largest opposition group.
Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman and Chairman of the Ajman Executive Council, presided over the Council’s meeting on Tuesday, where a key decision was made to strengthen the emirate’s presence on the regional and international stage.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.
