US joins UN Security Council condemnation of Israeli strikes on Qatar

The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s strikes on a residential compound in the Qatari capital Doha, which targeted senior members of Hamas.

The statement – which did not directly name Israel – was backed by all 15 Security Council members, including the US, which traditionally blocks actions against its close ally.

“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by the UK and France. Israel defended its decision to mount the attack.

Qatar has played a key role in brokering diplomatic efforts to end the Israel-Gaza war, serving as a mediator of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

It has hosted the Hamas political bureau since 2012 and is a close US ally, hosting a large American airbase in the desert south-west of Doha.

The emergency meeting was requested by Qatar, Algeria, Pakistan and Somalia. Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani travelled to New York to attend.

“This attack puts the international community before a test,” al-Thani told the council.

“Israel, led by blusterous extremists, has gone beyond any borders, any limitations when it comes to behaviour. We are unable to predict what Israel will do. How can we host Israeli representatives when they have committed this attack?”

Pakistan’s ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said: “It is evident that Israel, the occupying power, is bent on doing everything to undermine and blow up every possibility of peace”.

Meanwhile, Algeria’s ambassador Amar Bendjama said the Security Council remained “constrained” as it was “unable even to name the aggressor, to qualify aggression as a violation of international law”.

Israel’s representative, Danny Danon, defended the attack, telling the meeting: “This strike sends a message that should echo across this chamber. There is no sanctuary for terrorists, not in Gaza, not in Tehran, not in Doha.”

For a Security Council statement to be issued, all 15 members must sign off on the text. The US has long-blocked statements critical of Israel – making its backing of this one, though Israel is not named, notable.

US President Donald Trump earlier criticised Israel’s strikes, writing that unilaterally striking inside Qatar “does not advance Israel or America’s goals”.

However, he added that “this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for PEACE”, and that the elimination of Hamas was a “worthy goal”.

The strikes on Doha shocked many in the region, who had long assumed that close relations with the US would offer security.

In May, Trump announced a “historic” economic agreement signed between Qatar and the US that he said was valued at least $1.2 trillion (£890bn).

Qatar also recently gifted Trump a plane – valued at $400m – as an “unconditional gift” to be used as the new Air Force One, the official aircraft of the US president.

On Friday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) summoned the deputy Israeli ambassador over the Israeli strike on Doha as well as what it described as “hostile and unacceptable” remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The UAE normalised diplomatic ties with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords, a US-brokered agreement which led to co-operation across a range of issues, from security to the economy.

The accords, which were also signed by Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan, are widely seen as one of Donald Trump’s major foreign policy achievements from his first term in office.

Hamas said that its negotiating team survived Israel’s strikes on Doha on Tuesday, but that five of its members were killed, including the son of the group’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya. A Qatari security officer was also killed.