When US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that a deal with Iran had been “largely negotiated,” he cited a phone call with a crowded list of Middle East rulers. One ostensibly lesser name stood out: Qatar’s Ali Al Thawadi is a minister without his own department, but he too was namechecked by Trump, in a sign of just how important a cog he has become in the diplomatic machinery.
Al Thawadi was in the Oval Office in September last year to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu place a call to Qatar’s prime minister to apologize for bombing Doha. His relationship with Trump’s White House was cemented in January when he took up Qatar’s seat on the Gaza Executive Board. Described by Gulf watchers as “a discreet character, mostly operating in the background … a doer and implementer,” Al Thawadi often travels with Qatar’s prime minister on foreign trips; some analysts are now crediting him with helping to push Iran and the US toward an agreement.