Rubio in Israel as U.S. shows support despite Qatar attack

JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump may have hoped to be stitching together the final details of a peace deal, but instead his top diplomat landed in Jerusalem on Sunday to douse blazing tensions between U.S. allies

JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump may have hoped to be stitching together the final details of a peace deal, but instead his top diplomat landed in Jerusalem on Sunday to douse blazing tensions between U.S. allies.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled that Washington wants answers from Israel after its unprecedented attack on Hamas leaders inside Qatar, another key American partner in the Middle East. The Trump administration has sought to distance itself from the strike, which has outraged regional powers and left efforts to end Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip in tatters.

But while Rubio said Saturday that the U.S. was unhappy about the attack on Doha, he made clear that it would not fundamentally alter the close relationship between the two countries.

“Obviously we’re not happy about it,” Rubio told reporters. “The president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next.”

He said he would talk about “what the future holds” during his two-day visit to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in Jerusalem.