On September 9, the Israeli army launched a strike on Qatar. Six days later, the Arab League convened an extraordinary summit, which concluded with the adoption of the Doha Declaration. Here are the key takeaways. The extraordinary summit of the Arab League, held on Monday, September 15 in Doha, concluded with the adoption of a final communiqué. Participants unanimously condemned the «Israeli aggression» against Qatar and reaffirmed their «steadfast commitment to the sovereignty, independence, and security of all member states of the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation». However, the Doha declaration remained silent on the possibility of severing diplomatic ties with Israel, suspending relations, or recalling Arab diplomats from Tel Aviv for consultations. These measures, backed by a large segment of Arab public opinion and proposed by some leaders of Muslim countries, were not endorsed. The communiqué nonetheless stressed that «the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, famine, and blockade, as well as expansionist colonization and [Israel's] political activities, undermine the chances of peace and peaceful coexistence in the region, threatening normalized relations with Israel, including existing and future agreements». For context, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco currently maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Mauritania could potentially follow the same path. The common defense treaty, also omitted Arab League members urged «all states» to «impose sanctions» on Israel, «suspend the supply, transfer, or transit of weapons, ammunition, and military equipment, including dual-use items», «review diplomatic and economic relations» with Israel, and «initiate legal proceedings» against the state. The Doha summit also underlined «our collective duty to respond to this aggression to defend our common security», in line with the Arab common defense treaty signed in Cairo in 1960. Yet the final declaration stopped short of calling for the activation of this mechanism. Two days before the summit, Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Hossam Zaki stated that «the conditions are not met for the implementation of the Arab common defense treaty». Speaking to Al Jazeera Mubasher, he explained: «Activating such agreements means that a common enemy has been identified, and these agreements are implemented against it». The first and only time Arab states activated the common defense treaty was during the October 1973 war against Israel. At that time, King Hassan II deployed Royal Armed Forces troops to fight on the Syrian front alongside Syrian forces.
