ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Monday proposed the formation of an Arab-Islamic committee to present the Islamic and Arab states’ position regarding recent Israeli aggressions before the UN Security Council.

The Iraq premier, along with Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, represented Iraq at a Doha summit bringing together member states of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to adopt a stance in light of a recent Israeli strike targeting Hamas’ leadership in the Qatari capital earlier in September.

Sudani proposed “issuing a unified Arab and Islamic stance condemning the aggression against the State of Qatar” during the summit while calling for the formation of “a joint Arab-Islamic committee to present our position before the [UN] Security Council and international bodies.”

“I propose dealing with any attack on any Arab or Islamic country as a threat to all countries of the two blocs,” said the Iraqi prime minister.

The summit saw speeches from numerous other regional leaders, such as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, among several other top officials, condemning the Israeli move to target Qatar.

During the opening remarks of the summit, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani dubbed the strikes as an attempt by Israel to suppress peace prospects. "Whoever works diligently and systematically to assassinate the party with whom he is negotiating, intends to thwart the negotiations," said the Qatari emir. "Negotiations, for them, are merely part of the war,” he added.

Shortly after an attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which killed over 1,200, Israel launched a military campaign on the Gaza Strip. The increasingly brutal Israeli campaign has killed nearly 65,000 people in the Strip and wounded over 160,000 more, in addition to worsening humanitarian conditions and food shortages in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israeli strikes, however, have not been exclusively kept to the Palestinian Territories, with several regional countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and now Qatar, having also come under Israeli aerial assaults.

The attack on Qatar, a key US regional ally, on September 9, resulted in six deaths, including a member of the Qatari security forces, and ushered in a wave of regional and international condemnations.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday visited Jerusalem, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the attacks on Qatar. The Israeli premier, in a joint presser with Rubio, said that the strikes on Doha sent a “central message” to Hamas, namely that “you can run, you can hide, but we will get you.” 

Rubio, meanwhile, noted that Washington will continue to “encourage Qatar to play a constructive role” in the pursuit of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The US State Secretary is set to visit Doha on Tuesday after meeting with Israel’s Netanyahu, AFP reported on Monday, citing a US official.