Above photo: Reuters.
Qatar’s emir said Israeli plans for the region ‘will not pass.’
Nearly a week after Tel Aviv launched an attack on the Gulf state’s capital.
NOTE: TeleSur reports: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries ordered the military command to activate joint defense mechanisms in response to the Israeli attack on Doha, the capital of Qatar, last week. The decision came this Monday during the extraordinary session of the Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council. In this context, another objective of the measure was highlighted: the protection of the collective security of the Gulf States. It is worth remembering that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have maintained a strategic alliance since the founding of the GCC in 1981. This organization coordinates defense, economic, and security policies in the region
Qatar hosted on 15 September an emergency Arab-Islamic summit aimed at rejecting Israel’s recent attack on Doha, which targeted Hamas leaders as they were meeting to discuss a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.
The summit consisted of members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was among several regional leaders who attended the meeting on Monday.
“The capital of my country was subjected to a treacherous attack targeting a residence housing families of Hamas leaders and its negotiating delegation,” Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said while addressing the summit.
Al-Thani said the “terrorist attack” was “cowardly” and “despicable,” adding that Israel’s plans to “impose new realities” on the Arabs were “dangerous,” stressing that these plans “will not pass.”
“The idea that the Arab world becomes an Israeli sphere of influence is a dangerous illusion,” he added.
In a statement, the Secretary-General of the OIC, Hissein Brahim Taha, said the summit was an “opportunity to take a unified and firm stance against the heinous Israeli aggression.”
“We call upon the international community to live up to its responsibility, to hold Israel liable and responsible for its crimes and the repeated assault on our countries and peoples and in this direction, we call for practical measures to prevent any recurrence of these violations,” said Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, while calling for a “firm Arab and Muslim position.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “Economic pressure must be exerted on Israel.”
According to a draft statement leaked to media outlets, the OIC-Arab League summit will jointly “reaffirm absolute support for Qatar, its security, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens” and “emphasize the collective duty to respond to Israeli aggression in defense of our shared security.”
It will also “stress the need for international action to stop Israeli aggressions in the region,” and “affirm condemnation of any Israeli attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinian people under any pretext.”
Despite the harsh rhetoric, analysts have said the summit is not expected to amount to much.
Mohamad al-Masry, Media Studies Professor at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, said that expectations were “maybe a bit too high.”
“It’s likely that things are going to fall well short of expectations. Primarily because there are too many countries, they have diverging interests and they don’t all agree on taking these kinds of actions,” he added.
Masry added that he would be “very surprised” if countries like the UAE or Morocco pulled out of the 2020 Abraham Accords, which saw them normalize ties with Israel. “I think it’s unlikely because there are actors, like the UAE, like Morocco, who value their relationships with Israel.”
Before departing for Doha, the Iranian president urged Arab nations to “employ the full capacities of international and legal bodies to hold the Zionist regime accountable.”
The Israeli strike on Qatar last week targeted senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and others as they met in Doha to discuss the latest US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hayya’s son and four other lower-ranking Hamas members were killed. However, Hayya and other senior officials survived.
A Qatari security force member was also killed in Israel’s illegal attack.
Ali Larijani, the chief of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called over the weekend for a “joint operations room” against Israel, and warned Gulf states that they must take action to prevent their “own annihilation.”
