Qatar PM urges world to reject ‘double standards’ on Israel as Doha to host regional leaders

Qatar is to host an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic regional leaders tomorrow. Photo / Getty Images

Qatar’s prime minister urged the international community to reject “double standards” and hold Israel accountable, speaking on the eve of an emergency summit called in response to an unprecedented Israeli strike on Hamas members in Doha.

The deadly attack - carried out by one United States ally on the territory of another - sparked a wave of criticism, including a rebuke from US President Donald Trump, who nonetheless dispatched Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Israel in a show of support.

Tomorrow’s emergency gathering of Arab and Islamic leaders will serve as a pointed show of unity among Gulf countries and seek to pile more pressure on Israel, which is already facing mounting calls to bring an end to the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a preparatory meeting today, adding Israel’s “war of extermination” in Gaza would not succeed.

“What is encouraging Israel to continue ... is the silence, the inability of the international community to hold it accountable.”

Among the leaders expected at the summit are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas arrived in Doha today.

It remains to be seen whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, will attend the gathering, though he visited Qatar last week in a show of neighbourly solidarity.

According to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, the meeting will consider “a draft resolution on the Israeli attack on the State of Qatar”.

‘Rein in Israel’

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Al Jazeera today that the question of Israel’s behaviour “is no longer just a Palestine-Israel issue”.

“The biggest problem right now is Israeli expansionism in the region,” he said.

“Arab and Islamic countries must come together and find a solution based on this newly defined problem.”

Elham Fakhro, a fellow of Harvard’s Middle East Initiative, said she expected Gulf states to “use the summit to call on Washington to rein in Israel”.

“They will also seek stronger US security guarantees, on the basis that Israel’s actions expose the inadequacy of current assurances and have undermined US credibility as a security partner,” she added.

Middle East lecturer Karim Bitar, of Paris’ Sciences Po University, called the gathering a “litmus test” for Arab and Muslim leaders, saying many of their constituents were “sick and tired of the old-style communiques”.

“What they are expecting today is that these countries ... send a very important signal not only to Israel but also to the US that time has come for the international community to stop giving this blank cheque to Israel,” he said.

Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region and plays a key mediation role in the Israel-Hamas war, alongside the US and Egypt.

Sheikh Mohammed had dinner on Saturday with Trump while visiting the US.

Hamas politburo member Bassem Naim said the militant movement, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war, hoped the summit would produce “a decisive and unified Arab-Islamic position”.

-Agence France-Presse