Qatar urges world to reject 'double standards' and punish Israel as Trump expresses caution

Qatar's prime minister urged the international community on Sunday 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 US ally on the territory of another - sparked a wave of criticism, including a rebuke from President Donald Trump, who nonetheless dispatched Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Israel in a show of support.

Days after Israel attacked Qatar in an airstrike targeting Hamas leaders, US President Donald Trump made careful remarks on Sunday as Washington's two powerful Middle Eastern allies face a worsening rift.

"Qatar has been a very great ally. Israel and everyone else, we have to be careful. When we attack people we have to be careful," Trump told reporters.

Trump initially rebuked Israel over Tuesday's unprecedented strike on Doha, where negotiators from Israel and Hamas have been working to end the war in Gaza.

The attack has prompted Arab and Muslim leaders - including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas - to gather for a show of solidarity in Doha, where Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urged the world to "stop using double standards" and hold Israel to account.

Israel's strike on the Gulf country's capital killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer.

Monday'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 premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a preparatory meeting on Sunday, 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 Monday's 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 on Sunday.

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 earlier this week in a show of neighbourly solidarity.

According to Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, Monday's 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 on Sunday 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's 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 United States that the time has come for the international community to stop giving this blank check 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 United States and Egypt.

Sheikh Mohammed had dinner on Friday with President Trump while visiting the United States.

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".

AFP