Less than one week after Israeli warplanes launched an aggression on the Qatari capital, Doha, in an attempt to assassinate Hamas senior leaders, an emergency Arab-Islamic summit was held in Qatar to discuss possible ways to confront Israel after the offensive.
A final communique was issued at the end of the summit, condemning the Israeli aggression on Qatar and other countries in the region, including Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. It also denounced Israel’s ongoing genocide, starvation, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, as well as settlement activities and expansionist policies in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
Moreover, the communique called on Arab and Islamic states to exert diplomatic pressure and take all possible legal measures against Israel, without mentioning any military action as a potential response to its continuous aggression and violations.
Jordanian leader: outcomes “far below what is needed”
Peoples Dispatch spoke to Dr. Issam Khawaja, deputy general secretary of the Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party (known in Jordan as Wihda Party), to discuss more about the outcomes of the summit.
Dr. Issam criticized the outcomes of the summit saying: “They are far below what is needed, even though it was not expected that they would exceed the level of the outcomes announced in previous summits.”
“Some of the participating countries, primarily Gulf states, have strong economic and security ties with the United States. This in turn, prevents such countries from making any decisions related to confronting the Zionist entity that would bother the US administration,” he asserted.
The Jordanian political leader pointed out that the final communique of the summit included some points that have never been touched on earlier such as:
Reviewing the economic and diplomatic ties of some Arab and Islamic states with IsraelCoordinating efforts to suspend Israel’s membership in the United NationsCalling upon all states to suspend the supply, transfer, or transit of weapons, ammunition, and military materials to the Zionist entity
Dr. Issam, however, suggests that these points are insufficient as long as they are not connected with clear mechanisms, and if their implementation is not limited by a specific time frame.
Summit criticized as an attempt to absorb public anger, stopping short of action
Khawaja further slammed the final communique as “broadly-worded”, indicating that it only seeks to “absorb public anger over the globe, and within the Arab and Islamic nations in particular”.
“Therefore, we do not count on the communique to be converted into serious measures, which may pressure the US or the Zionist entity to end its genocidal aggression in Gaza,” he affirmed.
“We have been watching a horrific scene, where crimes, genocide, destruction, starvation have been committed by Israel in the most heinous way. Gaza city has been exterminated, flattened and bulldozed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in a systematic and obvious way to impose forced displacement on the Palestinian people, and make the besieged enclave uninhabitable, and also to crush the resistance. Yet, the summit only phrased headlines without taking any tangible steps to address them by using oil, gas and energy to pressure the US and Israel,” Khawaja continued.
Peace Initiative and two-state solution are no longer viable, says Khawaja
Dr. Issam explained that the official Arab regime has instead demonstrated its determination to hold on to the Arab Peace Initiative adopted in 2002, and the two-state solution, although neither has ever represented a just solution for the Palestinian people, not to mention the fact that both initiatives have been effectively eliminated by the Israeli occupation through its crimes and ongoing aggression against Arab countries.
“The two-state solution has not only been rejected by Israel, but also has not been backed by the current US administration. On the contrary, US President Donald Trump has supported Israel’s expansion throughout different parts of the Arab region, primarily in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” Dr. Issam noted.
He also argued that the outcomes of the summit indicate that Arab leaders have not taken into account the seriousness of Israel’s daily violations of human rights in occupied Palestine, nor the seriousness of its violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, in spite of being the closest ally to the US in the region.
“The fact that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in West Asia and the East Mediterranean, known as Al-Udeid, has not prevented Israel from violating Qatar’s sovereignty by attacking its capital, Doha,” Khawaja explained.
“This makes clear that the interests of the Zionist entity are prioritized over any other interests, and any relations established between the US and other states in the region,” he insisted.
Massive US arms deals fail to protect sovereignty
Dr. Issam observed that the outcomes of the summit provoked many questions and raised financial concerns. First, why weren’t the US air-defense systems in Al-Udeid activated to prevent the Israeli attack on Doha? From his own point of view, the non-activation of the Qatari air-defense systems also raises questions.
Referring to the multi-trillion-dollar deals signed with Trump last May, Dr. Issam wondered: “If Gulf states are unable to protect their sovereignty, why then have they allocated huge budgets to purchase arms from the US? How would these weapons be useful if they are not used to prevent any aggression?”
“These arms deals were not signed for defense-related purposes, but rather to market the US-manufactured weapons, and to pump money in the veins of the Trump administration’s economy,” he stressed.
Khawaja described the summit as an “embarrassing” response, whose outcomes fell short of confronting the Zionist entity, or bringing forward “any serious recommendations that would have turned the table on Israel, not even diplomatically”.
“Cutting ties with Israel by recalling the ambassadors of Arab and Islamic countries to Tel Aviv would have been among the recommendations set out in the final communique of the summit, but it was not. The summit even failed to set a time frame or an ultimatum for Israel to end its genocide in Gaza,” he added.
Arab leaders moved only after Qatar was targeted
He also questioned why the summit was only held after Qatar was subjected to an assault by Israel:
“Why wasn’t it held before to address Israel’s daily massacres, mass destruction, starvation, and forced displacement during the past six months, following the summit which was held in Egypt last March? Wasn’t the number of the victims in Gaza, which exceeded 65,000 Palestinians enough to motivate Arab and Muslim leaders to take serious and effective moves to stop the genocide?”
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