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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: European leaders denouncing the strike against Hamas leaders in Doha.

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Speaker 2: Joining us now is a former UK ambassador to Kuta

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Speaker 2: and a number of other countries, Nicholas Hopton, who is

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Speaker 2: non resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Nicholas, good morning,

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Speaker 2: and thank you for being with us. I wonder whether

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Speaker 2: we could start with your thoughts on how much of

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Speaker 2: an escalation you believe this is on Israel's part.

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Speaker 1: Good morning. I think this is a significant development and

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Speaker 1: looks like a major escalation taken by the government of Israel.

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Speaker 1: The arguments they have put forward yesterday to justify the attack,

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Speaker 1: the assassination of Hamas leaders obviously a terrorist organization, but

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Speaker 1: they were sitting in a sovereign country which has a

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Speaker 1: right not to be attacked, and it's also a great

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Speaker 1: ally of the Western Powers, particularly the United States. So

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Speaker 1: the arguments put forward yesterday to justify the attack, while

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Speaker 1: in line with perhaps premise Netanya, who's stated war objectives

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Speaker 1: from the word go to destroy Hamas, are actually failing

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Speaker 1: to justify under international law what has happened and to

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Speaker 1: explain why they felt it was necessary to do this

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Speaker 1: violating Katar's sovereignty and also without informing their ally the

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Speaker 1: United States as well.

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Speaker 2: Bureau chief Ethan Bonner that we were just speaking to

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg's is Well Buia chief. We're saying that other Gulf

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Speaker 2: states want to be rid of Hamas, and so you know,

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Speaker 2: other countries may actually not be that sorry that this

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Speaker 2: is what Israel is doing.

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Speaker 1: Your view, well, there's a big difference between having a

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Speaker 1: policy and how you carry it out. And I think

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Speaker 1: it's true that country across the Arab world, including in

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Speaker 1: the Gulf, and in Europe and elsewhere in the world,

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Speaker 1: see Hamas as a terrorist organization which committed appalling atrocities

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Speaker 1: on the seventh of October against Israeli citizens, and they

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Speaker 1: need to be held accountable and brought to justice for that.

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Speaker 1: But there's a difference between having a policy of doing

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Speaker 1: that and then breaking international law as a country to

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Speaker 1: carry it out, and that seems to be what Israel

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Speaker 1: has decided to do and which puts it on the

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Speaker 1: wrong side of the international community, all of whom, almost

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Speaker 1: without exception, including the United States, Israel's main remaining ally

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Speaker 1: in their way, they're prosecuting the war in Gaza has

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Speaker 1: They've all come out and unequivocally condemned what Israel did yesterday.

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Speaker 3: Nicholas, you talked about the US's role in defending Cutter.

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Speaker 3: It has its biggest military base in the Middle East

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Speaker 3: in Doha. Does it appear to you that Trump has

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Speaker 3: lost control of Benjamin Nettinya who here? Should we be

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Speaker 3: worried that perhaps Netanya who would next target Turkey for example,

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Speaker 3: where it's thought that how mass leadership is as well well.

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Speaker 1: I think this is a deeply embarrassing moment for the

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Speaker 1: White House. And it was interesting that after a few hours,

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Speaker 1: the White House and then Donald Trump himself came out

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Speaker 1: and were very clear that they were unhappy and disagreed

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Speaker 1: with what Primeister nessenya Who had done. I think that

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Speaker 1: was a decisive move. It's the most most critical statement

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Speaker 1: we've seen from the US administration under Donald Trump of

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Speaker 1: Israel's prosecution of the conflict in Gaza and elsewhere in

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Speaker 1: the West Bank. And I think the question now is

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Speaker 1: how does the US follow this up with Israel. Apparently

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Speaker 1: there was a conversation between Donald Trump and Benjaminyatu Netahu yesterday.

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Speaker 1: I imagine that would have been a difficult conversation. But

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Speaker 1: do those critical words turn into a new American engagement

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Speaker 1: which tries to bring about a meaningful negotiation towards a

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Speaker 1: ceasefire and the release of the hostages, which seems to

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Speaker 1: be very far away at this point. I think all

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Speaker 1: the questions at the moment are how does the White

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Speaker 1: House and the US administration now act following this military

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Speaker 1: strike by Israel.

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Speaker 2: What's your view on the UK's position in all of this?

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Speaker 2: Obviously quite distant, but the Prime Minister putting a post

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Speaker 2: on x Kiirs Darmer saying condemning the Israeli strike on Doha,

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Speaker 2: saying that it violates Qatar's sovereignty and risk further escalation

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Speaker 2: across the region, is that it from the UK government?

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Speaker 2: Is what's the UK government's position going to be here? Well?

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Speaker 1: I think both Kirs Starmer and President Macron France led

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Speaker 1: the European reaction yesterday in condem what it seems to

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Speaker 1: be a clear violation of international law. And the next step,

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Speaker 1: of course, is something that has already been scheduled, which

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Speaker 1: is a meeting in New York in the United Nations

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Speaker 1: General Assembly coming up in the next ten days, and

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Speaker 1: at that meeting. Britain, France and Canada and maybe others

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Speaker 1: have said they will recognize Palestine as an independent sovereign state.

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Speaker 1: Now that may be just to politics in the eyes

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Speaker 1: of some, but it is a significant step, and I

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Speaker 1: think so far Kirstanmer's resolved to do that will have

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Speaker 1: been strengthened by what happened yesterday.

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Speaker 3: I do just want to come back to the Turkey point,

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Speaker 3: because the US complained that they hadn't been given enough

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Speaker 3: warning of this attack before it took place. What are

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Speaker 3: your thoughts on whether the US had no knowledge of

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Speaker 3: the attack and whether we should expect more like this

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Speaker 3: in the future.

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Speaker 1: Well, briefly on Turkey, it is of course a NATO

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Speaker 1: member state and therefore covered by Article five of mutual

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Speaker 1: defense if attacked. It's a different situation. Should Israel decide

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Speaker 1: to attack Turkey and hamas targets there as opposed to

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Speaker 1: attacking Katar, which is not a member of NATO, I

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Speaker 1: think that would be an even more significant escalation. Also

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Speaker 1: because of course Kata is a Turkey is a much

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Speaker 1: more significant global security player than Katar, and Turkey has

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Speaker 1: I think, still the biggest standing army in Europe. So

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Speaker 1: I would imagine that the Israeli Prime Minister will think

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Speaker 1: twice before doing that. As for your second, part of

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Speaker 1: the question was on the US.

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Speaker 3: And whether they had any knowledge of the attack or

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Speaker 3: enough knowledge. Do you believe that they had no knowledge

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Speaker 3: of the attack before it took place?

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Speaker 1: Well, I've seen different analyses. Frank Gardner, the bb very

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Speaker 1: respected security correspondent, was clear yesterday that this attack could

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Speaker 1: not have taken place without the American military having been

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Speaker 1: in many ways complicit to that. At the same time,

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Speaker 1: I think we should take serious note of what the

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Speaker 1: White House has made clear and the US spokespeople that

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Speaker 1: they didn't have advanced warning, or if they did, then

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Speaker 1: it was very not enough in order to stop the attack.

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Speaker 1: There's also further confusion in this position because the catteries,

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Speaker 1: the cateri primes to shake. Mohammad yesterday, in his press statement,

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Speaker 1: said that the catteries were only warned about the military

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Speaker 1: strike ten minutes after it happened.