Category World News

Donald Trump has continued his tour of the Middle East with a stop in Qatar, marking the first time a United States president has made an official state visit to the Gulf country.

But just before he boarded Air Force One to fly into the Qatari capital of Doha, Trump made history in another way: He took his first-ever meeting with Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Wednesday marked the halfway point in Trump’s four-day trip, which included an opening stop in Saudi Arabia and will conclude in the United Arab Emirates.

And as with his other stops, Trump underscored warming relations and expanding business ties with leaders from Syria and Qatar — though, back home in the US, the Democratic Party raised concerns about how the Republican leader’s personal interests might be guiding his closed-door conversations.

Here are the key takeaways from Wednesday’s meetings and stops.

A high-profile meeting in Saudi Arabia

Before setting off for Qatar, Trump took one of the most highly anticipated meetings of his entire trip: a sit-down with Syrian President al-Sharaa.

It was the first time in nearly a quarter century that the top leaders from Syria and the US met face to face. And the meeting was extraordinary for a number of reasons: Until December, the US had offered a $10m reward for al-Sharaa’s capture.

It continues to list Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the armed group al-Sharaa led during Syria’s civil war, as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, due to its past ties with al-Qaeda.

But since a coalition led by HTS toppled the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, the US has been reevaluating its relationship with the group and its leadership.

The toppling of al-Assad’s government brought an end to Syria’s 13-year-long civil war, and al-Assad — long accused of human rights abuses — fled to Russia.

In the lead-up to Wednesday’s meeting with al-Sharaa, Trump announced that he would lift the sanctions against Syria put in place during al-Assad’s leadership, a development that al-Sharaa’s government praised as an economic boon and a step towards stability.

On Wednesday, al-Sharaa joined Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for an in-person meeting, while Turkiye’s President Recep Erdogan joined by phone.

Trump “told President Al-Sharaa that he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country”, according to a read-out from the White House. He also encouraged Syria to expel “foreign terrorists” and “Palestinian terrorists” from its borders, as well as normalise relations with Israel.

The read-out added that al-Sharaa said he shared the US’s interests in “countering terrorism and eliminating chemical weapons”. He also encouraged the US to invest in Syria’s petroleum sector.

Later, as he boarded Air Force One for Qatar, reporters asked Trump to share his first impressions of al-Sharaa.

“Great. I think very good. Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter. He’s got a real shot at pulling it together,” Trump replied.

A red-carpet arrival in Qatar

Pomp and circumstance have greeted Trump throughout his Middle East trip so far, and his arrival in Qatar was no exception.

Even before Air Force One touched down in the Qatari capital of Doha, the pageantry of the visit — Trump’s first international tour of his second term — was on full display.

As he entered Qatar’s airspace, White House Communications Adviser Margo Martin posted video online of F-15 fighter jets on either side of Air Force One, “providing honorary escort” to the president.

A red carpet greeted Trump as he touched down in Qatar. The country’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was on hand to welcome him. And a ceremonial guard, riding atop white horses and camels, trotted alongside his motorcade as he was transported to the site of his state visit.

“We’re extremely honoured to have you here. We’re very excited, very happy. It’s a historic visit,” Al Thani said. “I don’t know if you know that you’re the first American president to officially visit Qatar. So we’re very honoured.”

Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent Kimberly Halkett, who has been following the US president’s journey, said the opulence of Trump’s tour so far has been a selling point to his domestic audiences.

“ Americans loved the pomp and pageantry. They found it interesting to see the state dinner with the camels and to see some of the tea and coffee ceremonies,” Halkett said.

Even Trump marvelled at the decor inside the Amiri Diwan, the government centre of Qatar, calling the marble “perfect-o”.

A deal to boost trade and defence

Trump’s White House has described the president as the “dealmaker in chief”, and each stop so far on his four-day tour has culminated in the announcement of a major business deal with the US.

Wednesday’s visit to Qatar was no exception.

The White House announced that the US and Qatar had inked deals worth at least $1.2 trillion, including a major transaction which would see Qatar Airways buy 210 aircraft from the US company Boeing.

That deal alone was worth $96bn, according to a government fact sheet. Still, that was an adjustment downward from a higher figure Trump mentioned during the trip, $200bn.

“It’s the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing. That’s pretty good,” Trump said as he signed documents alongside Emir Al Thani.

In a gesture to his fellow leader, Trump added: “ We’ve been friends for a long time, long before politics.”

Other parts of the deal included purchases of drone and anti-drone technology from US defence companies like Raytheon and investments in the US energy sector.

“I think, after signing these documents, we are going to another level of relationship between Qatar and the United States,” Al Thani said, thanking Trump.

Democrats criticise conflicts of interest

But back in the US, Trump’s stop in Qatar continued to raise eyebrows among his critics, particularly in the Democratic Party.

The weekend before his trip, Trump faced controversy over reports that his Department of Defence would accept a luxury Boeing jet worth $400m from Qatar, dubbed a “palace in the sky”.

Such a gift would have been one of the largest in the history of the presidency. And critics warned it raised ethical and legal concerns, given the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits the federal government from accepting gifts from foreign governments without prior approval from Congress.

Still, Trump defended the idea on social media. He called the plane a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE” that was made “in a very public and transparent transaction”.

He also walked back media reports that he would use the aircraft as personal transport after leaving office. Sources indicated the plane was likely to be decommissioned after Trump left office and sent to his presidential library.

Ultimately, in Wednesday’s meeting with Emir Al Thani, the jet was not mentioned. It is unclear whether the exchange will continue.

The Democratic National Committee nevertheless announced it planned to fly a banner over Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to coincide with his Qatar visit, emblazoned with the phrase “Qatar-a-Lago”.

Journalists on Air Force One pressed the president about another potential conflict of interest.

One reporter asked Trump about a deal that would see an investment firm in the United Arab Emirates — the next stop on his tour — buy large sums of cryptocurrency from a company run by his family. The deal is reportedly worth $2bn.

“I really don’t know anything about it,” Trump replied. “But I’m a big crypto fan. I will tell you, I’ve been that from the beginning, right from the campaign. I’m a believer in crypto.”

The Parliament of the Maldives has impeached two judges of the country’s Supreme Court, deepening a political crisis triggered by President Mohamed Muizzu’s push to amend the constitution and strip legislators of their seats if they switch political parties.

The Parliament, where the governing People’s National Congress holds a supermajority, voted on Wednesday to remove Justices Azmiralda Zahir and Mahaz Ali Zahir on allegations of abuse of power.

The vote, which passed 68 – 11, took place as dozens of opposition supporters rallied outside the Parliament House, calling for Muizzu’s resignation and an end to what they called the intimidation of judges.

The move comes more than two months after the judicial watchdog, dominated by Muizzu’s allies, suspended the two judges and their colleague, Justice Husnu al-Suood. At the time, the seven-member Supreme Court bench had been holding hearings into a petition challenging the anti-defection amendments.

Suood later resigned from the top court, accusing Muizzu and Attorney General Ahmed Usham of intimidating all the judges of the Supreme Court to secure a judgement in their favour.

The president and his lawyer deny the charges.

“I do not interfere with the judiciary,” Muizzu told reporters during a 14-hour news conference on May 3. “I have never done so. I do not control the [the judicial watchdog].”

The crisis has brought the Maldives’s Supreme Court to a near halt, pausing hearings in all ongoing cases, including on the constitutional amendments. It has also raised fears of renewed instability in the Indian Ocean honeymoon destination, which held its first multiparty elections in 2008, but has been roiled by political turmoil since, including a coup d’etat, disputed elections, and the killings and jailing of dissidents.

‘Attack on judiciary’

Azmiralda and Mahaz denounced their impeachment on Wednesday.

“This is an attack on the Maldivian judiciary. It is no ordinary matter to bring the Maldives Supreme Court to a halt,” Azmiralda said in a statement. “My hope is that one day, when the rule of law is established in this country … all of the various officials who took part in destroying the Supreme Court are held accountable.”

The case against the two judges stems from the arrest of Azmiralda’s husband, Ismail Latheef, during a police raid on a spa where he was receiving a massage in the Maldivian capital, Male, on December 4 of last year.

The incident happened two weeks after Muizzu ratified the anti-defection measures.

The controversial amendments stipulate that legislators elected on a political party ticket would lose their seat if they switch parties, or if they resign or are expelled from their party. The provisions effectively allow Muizzu to maintain his supermajority in Parliament, where his party controls 79 of the chamber’s 93 seats.

The president has argued they are necessary to “improve political stability”, but opponents say they would destroy the country’s system of checks and balances.

At the time of Latheef’s arrest, a former member of parliament had filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the legality of the amendments, but the bench had yet to decide to take up the case.

Latheef was held overnight for more than 12 hours, on charges of soliciting a prostitute, but was released by a judge at the Criminal Court. In the ruling, the judge noted that the masseuse treating Latheef was fully clothed at the time of the raid, and that the room they were in was unlocked.

The prosecutor’s office later shelved the case against Latheef, citing a lack of evidence.

But after the Supreme Court began reviewing the constitutional amendments in February, the watchdog Judicial Services Commission (JSC) took up a separate case against Azmiralda and Mahaz, claiming the two judges had unlawfully lobbied lower court judges to secure Latheef’s release.

The JSC recommended that the Parliament impeach them last month.

‘No ulterior motives’

The judges have denied the charges, with lawyers for Azmiralda saying that the case was “manufactured by top government officials to suspend” them “in order to influence the outcome of the constitutional case before the Supreme Court”.

Usham, the Attorney General, has told Al Jazeera that the government “categorically denies these allegations”.

“There is absolutely no truth to the claim that the executive branch had any hand in the JSC’s [the judicial watchdog’s] decision,” he wrote in an email. “The suspension was pursuant to law and… any suggestion of ulterior motives is firmly rejected by the Government.”

The case, however, has drawn criticism from the United Nations and rights groups.

Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN’s special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, expressed grave concern last month over the action against the three judges, saying they appear to be aimed at undermining the Supreme Court’s judicial review of the anti-defection measures.

After a signing trade and defence deals with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, US President Donald Trump told media in Doha that the two had also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and Iran’s nuclear programme.

On Monday, the United States and China reached an agreement to slash sky-high tariffs for 90 days. Though both sides claimed they could withstand a long trade war, they reached a truce quicker than many analysts expected.

The breakthrough marked a dramatic ratcheting down of trade tensions following the tariff war launched by US President Donald Trump during his “liberation day” announcement on April 2.

Trump initially unveiled so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries before pausing them just one week later. China, however, did not get off the hook and Beijing soon retaliated with tariffs of its own.

Tit-for-tat exchanges quickly snowballed into eye-watering sums. By April 11, tariffs on Chinese goods entering the US had reached 145 percent and levies on US products going to China had swelled to 125 percent.

Tensions were already at boiling point last weekend when US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and He Lifeng, China’s vice-premier, agreed a ceasefire that would slash respective tariffs by 115 percentage points for three months.

US duties on Chinese products will now fall to 30 percent, while China’s tariffs on US goods will drop to 10 percent. Stock Markets rallied on the news, with the Nasdaq Composite climbing 4.3 percent on Monday and gaining 20 percent over its April low.

But one key question has significant implications for trade talks to come: Did Washington or Beijing flinch first?

What did the two countries say?

The tariff suspension, which was sharper than analysts expected, came after two days of trade talks in Geneva, Switzerland. On Monday, the US and China released a joint statement announcing the deal.

The two countries acknowledged the importance of their “bilateral economic and trade relationship” as well as the importance of a “sustainable, long-term, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship”.

The US and China agreed to establish a mechanism to continue discussing trade relations. China also agreed to “suspend or cancel” non-tariff measures against the US, but did not provide any details.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva last weekend, China’s Vice Premier He described the talks as “candid, in-depth and constructive”.

For his part, US Treasury Secretary Bessent told Bloomberg Television on Monday that “both sides agree we do not want a generalised decoupling.”

“The US is going to do a strategic decoupling in terms of the items that we discovered during COVID were of national security interests – whether it’s semiconductors, medicine, steel,” Bessent said.

After the talks concluded, Trump praised negotiations as a “great trade deal”, adding “we’re not looking to hurt China.” He then claimed a personal win, saying he had engineered a “total reset” with Beijing.

Elsewhere, Hu Xijin, former editor of the Chinese state-run Global Times publication, said on social media that the deal was “a great victory for China”.

What are the terms of the pause?

After the tariff pause had been announced, Bessent said it’s “implausible” that reciprocal tariffs on China will fall below 10 percent. However, he said the April 2 level – set by President Trump at 34 percent – “would be a ceiling”.

He also said “we could see some amount of the fentanyl tariffs… come off.” Earlier this year, Trump put a 20 percent tariff on China, accusing it of not doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl, a highly addictive and deadly opioid, into the US.

For now, Chinese goods will continue face a 30 percent tariff. In addition, specific products from China, such as electric vehicles, steel and aluminium, are subject to even higher, separate tariffs imposed in recent years.

On Monday, the White House also issued an executive order lowering duties on low-value packages – items costing up to $800 – from China from 120 to 54 percent.

And while a minimum $100 fee on packages from e-commerce sites Temu and Shein will remain in place, the increase to $200 planned for June 1 was dropped.

On the flip side, Beijing pledged to suspend non-tariff forms of retaliation imposed since April 2, such as export restrictions on critical minerals that US manufacturers use in high-tech equipment and clean energy technology.

Notably, the deal does not include concessions from Beijing on several US sticking points, like its huge trade surplus with the US or its exchange rate policy, China is accused of keeping its renminbi artificially low in order to boost export sales.

Tariff suspensions will be in place for 90 days. They will be subject to reviews based on broad negotiations in the coming weeks and months.

Who conceded more ground?

The speed with which the US and China unwound their tariffs, taking many analysts by surprise, suggests the trade war was inflicting pain on both sides.

The tariffs were threatening job losses for Chinese factory workers and higher inflation and empty shelves for American consumers.

But for Piergiuseppe Fortunato, an adjunct professor of economics at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, it is clear who wanted the deal more badly.

“First of all, America made more concessions than China. Second, America’s economy, which is unsteady at the moment, is more reliant on China’s than the other way around.”

In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the US economy was facing an increased risk of recession as Trump’s trade war – and the accompanying increase in consumer prices – could unleash a “significant slowdown”.

Fortunato told Al Jazeera that “Beijing is not in such a precarious position. Take, for example, its latest export figures.”

China’s exports grew sharply in April. The strong performance, an 8.2 percent increase from the year before, came as Chinese firms diverted trade flows to Southeast Asia, Europe and other destinations.

“I think that Washington overplayed its hand with Beijing,” says Fortunato.

“The White House overestimated the importance of the US market, and underestimated China’s success in diversifying its exports away from the US since the first Trump trade war” in 2018.

What will happen next?

“It could take a long time to reach a detailed agreement, if one is even possible,” notes Fortunato.

In 2018, the US backed away from a potential trade deal following talks with Beijing. The next 18 months saw tariff exchanges before a Phase One deal was signed in January 2020.

However, China did not meet all the terms of that purchase agreement. It fell some 43 percent short of the $200bn worth of goods it agreed to buy from the US by 2021.

Then, the US trade deficit with China jumped up during the COVID-19 pandemic, setting the stage for the current trade war.

Earlier this week, Bessent once again hinted that Washington might be looking for the type of “purchase agreements” that characterised the Phase One deal.

“The US has made noises that it may be going for more purchase agreements. But the American economy took a hit last time from similar arrangements,” says Fortunato.

During Trump’s first trade war with China, the US-China Business Council estimated that 245,000 US jobs were lost.

As the scope of tariffs is greater today, even after last weekend’s announcement, it’s fair to assume that even more jobs will be shed.