ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend an emergency summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in Qatar aimed at denouncing Israel’s recent strike on Hamas officials in Doha and demonstrating solidarity with the Gulf state, Pakistan’s Foreign Office confirmed on Saturday.
Qatar announced earlier today that it would host the urgent meeting in light of recent regional developments. Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari stated that Monday’s summit would consider a draft resolution addressing the Israeli attack, which is expected to be formulated at a ministerial meeting on Sunday.
The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer. The strike drew widespread international condemnation, including from Gulf monarchies allied with the United States, Israel’s primary backer. Al-Ansari was quoted by the official QNA news agency as saying 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.”
Confirming Prime Minister Sharif’s participation, the Foreign Office stated that Pakistan is a co-sponsor of the summit. The communiqué highlighted that the decision to hold the meeting also stems from Israeli attempts to occupy Gaza, expand settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, and forcibly displace Palestinians.
Heads of state, government leaders, and senior officials from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries are expected to attend the Doha summit. A preparatory meeting of foreign ministers, which Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar will attend, is scheduled for September 14. The Foreign Office reiterated Pakistan’s strong condemnation of Israeli aggression against Qatar and other regional states, emphasizing the high importance Islamabad places on its relations with Doha.
Among the prominent leaders slated to attend are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also expected in Doha, though his confirmed presence at the meeting itself remains pending.
Analysts suggest the summit is intended to send a clear message to Israel. Andreas Krieg of King’s College London noted that the Israeli strikes were “seen across the Gulf as an unprecedented violation of sovereignty and an attack on diplomacy itself.” He added that the summit signals that “such aggression can’t be normalised,” with the goal being “to draw clear red lines and end the sense in Israel that it can act with impunity.” Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the region, also plays a crucial mediation role in the Gaza conflict alongside the United States and Egypt.
Separately, U.S. President Donald Trump held a dinner meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in New York on Friday. The meeting, which also included top Trump adviser and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, followed an earlier White House session between al-Thani, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
During the dinner, President Trump reportedly expressed his annoyance about the Israeli strike in Doha in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not recur. Sources briefed on the discussions indicated that the U.S. meetings focused on Qatar’s future as a regional mediator and ongoing defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli actions. President Trump is said to have expressed dissatisfaction with the strike, describing it as a unilateral action that did not advance U.S. or Israeli interests.
