By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar reached Doha on Sunday to head Pakistan’s delegation to a ministerial session ahead of an emergency Arab-Islamic summit, a pointed gesture of support for Qatar following Israeli airstrikes that killed at least six people in the Gulf nation’s capital this week.
The Tuesday assault, aimed at Hamas leaders in a civilian neighborhood as they weighed a US-proposed Gaza ceasefire, claimed five Hamas members and one Qatari security officer. Qatar, a linchpin in Israel-Hamas hostage and truce talks alongside the United States and Egypt, hosts the Palestinian group’s political office to facilitate those efforts. The incursion ignited outrage across the region, even from US-allied Gulf states.
Pakistan, which shuns diplomatic contact with Israel and staunchly backs Palestinian independence along pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, issued a swift rebuke of the “unprovoked” operation. Dar was greeted at the airport by Pakistan’s ambassador to Qatar, its envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and top Qatari officials.
“Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, has arrived in Doha to lead Pakistan’s delegation to the Ministerial meeting ahead of the Emergency Arab Islamic Summit on Israel’s attack against Qatar,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Islamabad has consistently assailed Israel’s Gaza offensive, which has killed nearly 65,000 people — mostly women and children — since October 2023. Pakistani officials have pressed for an immediate halt to the fighting and probes into alleged war crimes.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif plans to join the summit in Doha on Monday, a trip that highlights Pakistan’s “unwavering support for the security and sovereignty of Qatar and its commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East,” the Foreign Office said earlier. As a co-sponsor of the gathering, confirmed Saturday, Pakistan frames it as a stand against not just the Doha strikes but also Israeli efforts to seize Gaza, build West Bank settlements and displace Palestinians by force.
Qatar announced the emergency forum on Sunday, drawing Arab and Muslim leaders in a rare display of unity. Heads of state and top officials from Organization of Islamic Cooperation members are due to attend, with foreign ministers convening first that evening. The Monday plenary will weigh a draft resolution on the Israeli attack, to be shaped at the preparatory talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said.
The summit “reflected broad Arab and Islamic solidarity with the State of Qatar in the face of Israel’s cowardly aggression … and the categorical rejection of Israel’s state terrorism,” the Gulf state’s official QNA news agency.
Confirmed participants include Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be in Doha, though his attendance at the session is pending.
For Qatar — steward of the Middle East’s largest US air base and a key broker in the Gaza conflict — the strikes pierced a sanctuary of quiet diplomacy, unnerving the Gulf and threatening to derail talks. Analysts see the summit as a bid to reset boundaries.
The repercussions reached Washington, where President Donald Trump worked to mend frayed partnerships. He dined Friday in New York with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and US special envoy Steve Witkoff. “Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, posted on X.
The White House acknowledged the dinner without elaboration. It followed al-Thani’s hour-long White House session that day with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where they covered Qatar’s mediator duties and post-strike defense ties.
In a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump registered displeasure at the strike, deeming it a solo gambit that undercut US and Israeli aims. He pledged to the Qataris that repeats were off the table.
Pakistan’s outreach to Qatar aligns with its broader push to rally Muslim nations on Palestine. The Foreign Office stressed anew Sunday that Islamabad “accords high importance to its relations with State of Qatar” and “strongly condemned Israeli aggression against Qatar and other regional states.”
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