At the summit in Bahrain, King Hamad called for an international Middle East conference to discuss the war in Gaza.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani attended the 33rd Arab League Summit in Bahrain on Thursday, where discussions centred on Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
The summit is the latest such gathering since last November, when Arab leaders and members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation met in Saudi Arabia for an extraordinary summit, just weeks into the brutal war in Gaza.
Upon his arrival in Manama, Sheikh Tamim received a warm welcome from Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The Qatari leader’s visit also came amid a thawing of relations between Doha and Manama following the 2017 Gulf Cooperation Council crisis.
At the time, Bahrain joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in severing ties with Qatar. The quartet had imposed an illegal air, land and sea blockade on Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism at the time.
Qatar had vehemently rejected the allegations and described them as “baseless.”
While the crisis effectively came to an end in 2021 with the signing of the Al-Ula Declaration in Saudi Arabia, ties between Qatar and Bahrain took time to resume.
In April 2023, the two nations’ diplomats met in Riyadh where they officially re-established diplomatic ties for the first time since the region’s worst diplomatic rift.
Middle East peace conference
At the summit in Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa called for an international Middle East conference to discuss the war in Gaza. Notably, Bahrain and the UAE signed the Abraham Accords in late 2020, under which they officially established diplomatic ties with Israel.
Morocco and Sudan shortly followed suit in the wave of normalisation with Israel.
“[We] call for an international conference for peace in the Middle East, in addition to supporting full recognition of the State of Palestine and accepting its membership in the United Nations,” King Hamad said at the summit.
The summit this time took place as Israel continued its relentless invasion of Rafah while simultaneously launching deadly attacks in Jabalia. The Israeli attacks intensified last week when occupation forces invaded the Gaza-Egypt Rafah Crossing, a vital portal for aid and people.
The move also stalled the ceasefire talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
The war is currently in its eighth month without a ceasefire in sight, with at least 35,272 people killed, including more than 15,000 children.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also called for financial support for his government while highlighting Israel’s attacks on Palestinians “through its army and terrorist settlers.”
President Abbas asked, “How long will this Israeli terrorism continue? When will this tragedy end, and our people and state be liberated from occupation?”
Abbas added that “the immediate priority is to halt the aggression, increase humanitarian aid, prevent the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, and promptly implement the two-state solution based on international legitimacy.”
The Palestinian president stressed that “it has now become critical to activate the Arab safety net, to boost the resilience” of Palestinians“ and to enable the government to carry out its duties.”
