Marco Rubio again criticises Israel's strike on Qatar
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, begins his visit to Israel, he has once again criticised the Israeli strike on Qatar. We ask whether this will bring about a policy change in Israel and how the Gulf states will react to the strike.
Also in the programme, fighter jets are scrambled as Romania becomes the second NATO country to report an incursion into its airspace by a Russian drone. And the rock band, Queen, gives their first symphonic performance of their rock operetta Bohemian Rhapsody at the Last Night of the BBC Proms.
Credit: Photo by ABIR SULTAN/EPA/Shutterstock (15485623ao) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) visit the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, 14 September 2025
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the World Service of the BBC coming live from London. |
| 0:08.5 | This is Owen Bennett Jones. |
| 0:10.6 | Obviously, we're not happy about it. |
| 0:13.3 | That's the phrase used by Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, about the Israeli strike on Qatar. |
| 0:20.2 | Israeli media reports, by the way, are saying Israel |
| 0:22.9 | doesn't yet know if it succeeded in killing the Hamas leaders it was targeting, and they're |
| 0:28.7 | reporting Qatar is concealing the outcome of the strikes. But whatever the outcome, the US reaction |
| 0:34.4 | has to factor in Washington's relationship with Qatar, which not only hosts |
| 0:39.8 | a US military base, but is also gifting Washington a new Air Force One plane. So quite a lot for |
| 0:45.7 | Marco Rubio to navigate. He spoke before he set off for Israel. I'm going to get a much better |
| 0:52.7 | understanding of what their plans are moving forward. |
| 0:54.9 | What's happened has happened. Obviously, we were not happy about it. The president was not happy about it. |
| 0:59.3 | Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next. Because at the end of the day, when all |
| 1:02.7 | is said and done, there is still a group called Hamas, which is an evil group that still has weapons |
| 1:07.1 | and is terrorizing. There is still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately |
| 1:12.5 | all at once. Well, on Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said getting |
| 1:17.9 | rid of Hamas leaders in Qatar would rid the main obstacle to the release of those hostages |
| 1:23.3 | and ending the war. Last night, hostage families, army reservists and members of the public, |
| 1:29.9 | marched in Tel Aviv, demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu stop the war |
| 1:34.1 | and get the hostages released without delay. |
| 1:37.6 | I think the only motivation he has is to rescue himself from his trial |
| 1:43.0 | and everything else serves the purpose. |
... |
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