“We appreciate the solidarity of brotherly Arab and Islamic countries and friendly countries from the international community that condemned this barbaric Israeli attack,” Sheikh Mohammed said on Sunday.
He added, “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, who is also the foreign 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 on Qatar 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,” Sheikh 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 stated 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 that Israel must be brought to account for its “evidenced war crimes”, including “killing civilians, starving the population and driving an entire population homeless”.
