A gathering of Arab and Islamic state leaders in Doha on Monday planned to call for sanctions on and a ban on sale of weapons to Israel following Israel's missile attack on Qatar on 9 September.
The Arab-Islamic emergency summit would also call for "reviewing diplomatic and economic relations" with Israel, according to a draft declaration released Monday. The summit took place five years to the day after President Donald Trump launched the "Abraham Accords" process for normalizing Israel's relations with the Mideast Gulf Arab states.
Israel on 9 September carried out what its military has described as "a precise strike" targeting the senior leadership of the Gaza-based Hamas militant group. Hamas leaders gathered in Doha to review the latest terms of a ceasefire mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt. The targeted Hamas leaders appear to have escaped largely unharmed, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to rule out additional strikes in the future. The attack in a residential part of Doha resulted in six deaths, including that of a Qatari security officer, Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said at the summit.
The attack made little to no impact on crude, LNG and freight markets and resulted in no damage to Qatar's energy infrastructure.
But the political fallout is evident by the presence of leaders of Qatar's regional rivals — including Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman — coming together in Doha to express solidarity and to condemn Israel.
"Iran stands with Qatar and indeed all Muslim brothers and sisters, particularly against the scourge that is terrorizing the region," said Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi.
Iran, too, launched missiles into Qatar in June, targeting the largest US air force base in the Middle East after the US had bombed Iran's nuclear facilities. Doha strongly protested that Iranian attack but still welcomed Pezeshkian to join the summit on Monday.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will hold a "joint defense council" in Doha next week.
The US has not explicitly condemned the Israeli attack in Doha but engaged in damage control to prevent further rupture of relations between Israel and the Mideast Gulf states.
Trump, who hosted Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at a White House dinner on 12 September, said on Sunday that "Qatar has been a great ally."
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who visited Israel on Monday and plans to visit Qatar Tuesday, told reporters that he did not think the Abraham Accords process will be reversed.
"What's happened has happened," Rubio said. "Obviously we're not happy about it."
