Arab states say US should use its leverage and influence as they promise to ‘activate joint defence mechanisms’
Gulf leaders meeting at an emergency summit in Qatar have called on the Trump administration to use its leverage to rein in Israel following the unprecedented Israeli attempt last Tuesday to assassinate Hamas negotiators in Doha.
Speaking after the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the group’s secretary general, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, said: “We … expect our strategic partners in the United States to use their influence on Israel in order for it to stop this behaviour … they have leverage and influence on Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence be used.”
The attack killed five Hamas officials and was denounced on Monday by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as “a cowardly and treacherous attack on Qatar’s sovereignty”.
He said: “Israel claims that it’s a democracy surrounded by enemies when it’s in fact a colonial occupation carrying out crimes without limit.”
