The high-stakes summit comes amid widespread regional and global condemnation of the Israeli strike on Qatar and Tel Aviv's insistence on forging ahead with its 23-month-old genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Qatar announced that it would host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Sunday and Monday to discuss the repercussions of the Israeli attack on its sovereignty.
Heads of various Islamic nations, including Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia, will join Arab leaders for the summit in the Qatari capital.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Dr. Majid al-Ansari, said “the summit will discuss a draft statement on the Israeli attack on the State of Qatar.” al-Ansari stressed that the attending countries’ complete rejection and denunciation of "the state terrorism" practised by Israel.|
Several local and regional media reports have suggested that a new arab and Oslamic cooperation framework might be on the agenda.
The summit will start with a ministerial level meeting on Sunday to be followed by a meeting of heads of states on Monday.
In an unprecedented attack, Israeli warplanes struck Doha to assassinate the Hamas Gaza ceasefire negotiating team that was discussing the latest truce proposal between Israel and Hamas from the Trump Administration. The Hamas negotiation team escaped the assassination attempt, but the strikes killed at least six people, including the son of top Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, and a Qatari security officer.
During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said, "Doha is consulting with regional partners on how to respond to Tuesday’s attack."
He noted that an Arab-Islamic summit would bring together Arab and Islamic leaders in the coming days to determine a collective course of action, emphasizing that Qatar will not dictate how its partners should respond.
The Qatari premier denounced the strike as a “cowardly Israeli assault” and a violation of international law and its sovereignty.
He described the Israeli strike on his country as “state terrorism," explaining to the American broadcast that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's attack on Doha was a continuation of his two-year-old pattern of torpedoing all Gaza ceasefire efforts to forge ahead with his war on the strip.
The Qatari premier added that the Israeli attack on a country that was mediatiing for a truce/prisoener swap deal between Israel and Hamas might have “killed any hope” for the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.
For nearly two years, Qatar and Egypt have mediated for a ceasefire and prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza war, only to be met by manoeuvres by Netanyahu to prolong the genocide.
Doha has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012, per a request from Washington, to serve as a vital channel of communication between the group and international actors.
Shortly after the attack on Tuesday, various Arab and regional powers denounced the Israeli attack on Qatarti sovereignty.
International condemnations
The Arab-Islamic summit also comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten various Arab and Middle Eastern capitals with more strikes, saying the attack on Doha may only be the beginning of a wider campaign targeting Hamas leaders abroad.
The summit comes two days after the UN Security Council on Thursday condemned the strikes on Qatar and called for de-escalation, but failed to name Israel as the cuplrit in the agression.
In a statement, the UNSC "underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar, in line with the principles of the UN Charter," read the statement, which required the agreement of all 15 council members, including the US, Israel's top ally in the UNSC.
The UNSC members also recalled their support for the vital role that Qatar continues to play in mediation efforts in the region, and alongside Egypt and the United States.
The Security Council statement called Doha "the territory of a key mediator" for peace talks between Israel and Hamas, alongside Egypt and the United States.
The same day, Egypt's Ambassador to the United Nations, Osama Abdel-Khalek, told the UN Security Council's special session that Cairo considers Qatar's security as part of the country and collective Arab national security.
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