Emergency Doha meeting and condemnation of attack against Qatar
Arab and Islamic leaders, while condemning the attack on Qatar, called for an end to arms sales to Israel.
The emergency Doha summit, while condemning the attack on Qatar, emphasized the need to review diplomatic relations. At the extraordinary summit in Doha, leaders of nearly 60 Arab and Islamic countries called on the international community to stop arms sales to Israel and review their economic and political relations with Tel Aviv until the end of the war in Gaza.
The joint statement of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said that member states should take all legal and effective measures to stop Israel from continuing its aggression against the Palestinian people and imposing an arms embargo. It also stressed that the 57 OIC members in the United Nations should take action to suspend Israel's membership.
The statement, while condemning last week's Israeli attack on the capital of Qatar, described Tel Aviv's actions as "genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation of civilians, and expansionism," and warned that such policies would destroy the prospects for any peace in the region.
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called the Israeli attack on Doha a treacherous aggression against a residential area that includes “schools and diplomatic missions,” stressing: “The capital of my country has been the target of an aggression. Our citizens were taken by surprise and the entire world was shocked by this cowardly terrorist act.”
Referring to the presence of Hamas leaders in the ceasefire and hostage release negotiations in Qatar, Al-Thani accused Israel of exploiting the war for ulterior motives, adding: "Israel is a country that systematically tries to assassinate the leaders with whom it negotiates, while at the same time attacking the mediating country."
He warned that the current war has become "a war to destroy and make Gaza uninhabitable," and continued: "Netanyahu dreams of turning the Arab region into an Israeli sphere of influence, a dangerous illusion."
An Israeli airstrike on a residential area in Doha that killed six and wounded 18, including a Qatari security officer, sparked a wave of global condemnation. The Gulf Cooperation Council, in a separate statement, announced an urgent defense meeting in Doha.
The UN Human Rights Council also urgently examined this issue on Tuesday, September 16, in Geneva.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to the wave of criticism, called it "hypocrisy" and said: "According to international law, every country has the right to defend itself beyond its borders against those who kill its citizens."
Comparing Israel's actions to the US operation against al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks, he added: "Countries should not provide safe havens for terrorists."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the press conference alongside Netanyahu, emphasized the close relations between Washington and Doha and stated that his country's priority remains cooperation to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
