As part of a cabinet reshuffle on Nov. 12, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani appointed the head of his office, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, as deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs
Over the years, Sheikh Saoud posted tweets in which he supported Hamas, incited against Israel and criticized the U.S. and President Donald Trump. He also called to increase Qatar’s influence on decision-makers in the U.S.
Below is a sampling of these posts, some of which were recently deleted from his account.
Saoud in a 2014 tweet: ‘We are all Hamas’
During the round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014 (“Operation Protective Edge”), Saoud tweeted under the hashtags “We Are All Hamas” and “We Are All Palestine”: “O Jerusalem, awake, awake. We will never succumb to the darkness. O Jerusalem, rise up, rise up. Revive the memory of [Syrian anti-Zionist terrorist Izz ad-Din] al-Qassam [(1882-1935)]. O Jerusalem, shoot flames of fire.”
In 2012, when he served as chairman of the Qatar Olympic Committee, Saoud hosted Ismail Haniyeh, then Hamas’s “prime minister” in Gaza, and Hamas official Yahya Sinwar, who had been released several months earlier from an Israeli prison and would one day be the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Tweeting about the visit, Saoud referred to “brother Prime [Minister] Ismail Haniyeh.”
2021 tweet: ‘We must influence the decision-makers in the US’
In a Nov. 30, 2021 tweet, Saoud wrote, “Israel’s control of the U.S. is clear. We must plan how to influence the decision-makers in the U.S.”
One of his followers wrote in response: “I wish it was that easy,” and Saoud replied, “With correct planning and a strong will, everything is possible.”
2015 tweet: The US destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq
On Dec. 24, 2015, Saoud tweeted: “The U.S. destroyed Afghanistan and failed [to achieve its goals], destroyed Iraq [but] failed and handed it over to Iran, [and now] it sits by as Syria is being destroyed by Iran and Russia.”
Saoud on US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
On Dec. 6, 2017, the day President Trump announced the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Saoud shared a picture of Jerusalem, and commented under the hashtags “Jerusalem, Capital of Palestine” and “Jerusalem, the Eternal Capital of Palestine”:
“Since the day I opened my Twitter account, this picture has been my [profile] banner, and I will not change it, Allah willing, due to my unshakable belief that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. Referring to Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, he added: “Nobody has the right to give away something he does not own.”
Several days later, on Dec. 9, 2017, Saoud shared a picture of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, commented, “They have the Balfour Declaration and we have Allah’s promise,” and quoted from Quran 4:122: “Allah’s promise is the truth, and whose word can be truer than Allah’s?”
Originally published by the Middle East Media Research Institute.