US political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had caught and “arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries,” reported the Middle East Eye.“Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?” Carlson said on his show. “Aren’t they on the same side?”
“Israel wants to hurt Iran – and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait,” he added.Carlson also alleged that Israel deliberately sows chaos among America’s Arab allies.
The MEE report added that in February, Israeli forces detained Carlson and members of his team shortly after he interviewed Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.In the interview, Huckabee stated that Jews have a “divine right” to colonise Palestinian land and denied Palestinian national identity.
The interview followed a public spat between the pair online after Carlson slammed Israel’s “shocking” treatment of Christians and accused Huckabee of failing to ensure protections for Christians who face attacks from Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and in Jerusalem.
In 2025, after he visited Palestinian refugees from Gaza in Qatar and accused Israel of murdering children, a pro-Israel advocacy group in the US named Carlson as its “Antisemite of the Year”, citing his opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.