President Donald Trump on Saturday played host to the the Emir of Qatar on Air Force One, a brief appearance that the president called a “great honor.”
Trump addressed reporters on the plane during a refueling stop as he makes his to Malaysia for the ASEAN Summit, where he was seated between Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
“I was thinking: ‘We’re landing here, we’re going to fuel up.’ Such an honor to have you on the plane. We don’t do this often,” Trump said. “They are a great ally and these are two great men.”
Trump then thanked both the Qatari leaders for their key role in the peace deal between Israel and Hamas, saying they now have a “safe Middle East.”
“Peace to the Middle East. They were a very big factor in that,” the U.S. president said. “We have a safe Middle East and we want to keep it that way for a little longer.”
Qatar and the United States have been close allies for decades, but that relationship appeared to hit a roadblock earlier this month after Israel launched strikes targeting Hamas leadership in Doha.
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The controversial strikes prompted Trump to grant major security guarantees for Qatar, including regarding any attack on the Middle Eastern country as an attack on the U.S. The Pentagon also agreed to host Qatari F-15s and pilots at an Air Force base in Idaho weeks later.
Earlier this year, Qatar also gifted a Boeing 747 jet to the U.S. that will be converted to be used as Air Force One.