Qatar PM blasts Israel, appreciates Arab, Islamic support ahead of summit

Doha, Qatar – Arab and Islamic states have condemned Israel’s “barbaric” attack on Qatar and will support Doha in the measures it will take to safeguard its sovereignty, says Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

“We appreciate the solidarity of brotherly Arab and Islamic countries and friendly countries from the international community that condemned this barbaric Israeli attack,” Mohammed said on Sunday. “It expressed its full support for us and the legitimate legal measures we will take to preserve the sovereignty of our country.”

The Qatari prime minister made the comments as foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries convened in Doha before their leaders hold an emergency summit on Monday in response to Israel’s attack last week.

The Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) session opened not with ceremony but with urgency as the delegates came together in a city suddenly thrust into the heart of a regional confrontation.

Israel’s strikes on Tuesday killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer, narrowly missing the negotiation team meeting in Doha as they weighed a United States proposal to end Israel’s genocidal two-year war on Gaza.

“It’s time for the international community to abandon dual standards and to hold Israel accountable for all the crimes it has committed,” Mohammed said at a meeting inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the heart of the city, adding that the attack must be met with “fierce” and “firm” measures.

Delegates from the Arab League and the OIC are collaborating on a joint resolution that will specify concrete measures against Israel. The details of this resolution are expected to be revealed on Monday.

The Qatari prime minister also chided Israel’s continuous derailment of Gaza ceasefire talks, stating: “Israel must know that the continuous genocidal war against the Palestinian people, aiming at forcibly transferring them outside their homeland, cannot succeed, no matter what false justification is provided.”

Members of both the Arab League and OIC pushed for Israel to be held accountable for its attack on Qatar.

“The ongoing state terrorism against the people of the region demands us to draft a resolution for the UN General Assembly to put an end to these practices as well as the violations and crimes against the Palestinian people and push forward for the two-state solution,” OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha said at Sunday’s session.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, meanwhile, stressed the need for a clear message of Arab-Islamic solidarity with Qatar, stating Israel must be brought to account for “evidenced war crimes”, including “killing civilians, starving the population and driving an entire population homeless”.

Summit expected to give ‘strong statement to Netanyahu’

There are expectations that the summit will yield a unified and forceful response to Israel’s attack.

According to Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka, the chief editor of the Gulf Times, the emergency summit will likely result in concrete measures against Israel instead of just strongly worded condemnations.

“It’s been the narrative of the Arab summit that [there are] only statements of condemnation. But I don’t think that’s the case [any more],” al-Mudahka told Al Jazeera.

“I think it will be [the adoption of] certain measure[s] that will give a very strong statement to Netanyahu.”

The Arab and Muslim world is intently awaiting the results of the summit, he added, describing it as a show of solidarity from the region.

The US, meanwhile, remains a strategic partner of Qatar, a relationship that dates back to the 1970s, al-Mudahka explained, adding that Tuesday’s attack is unlikely to change ties between Washington and Doha.

Al-Mudahka additionally hopes there will be an opportunity at the summit to continue pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza despite Israel’s attack on Doha sidelining the negotiations.

“I hope this summit also is a path … to [end] the war in Gaza,” al-Mudahka said.