There must not be any “double standard” between the international community’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, the emir of Qatar has told Eu leaders.
Speaking at a summit of leaders from the EU and Gulf states, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Israel’s “destructive war” in Palestine and Lebanon had normalised war crimes and could not be accepted. The Qatari leader said a ceasefire on both fronts was a necessary first step before talks could begin to find a “definitive solution” to the Palestinian cause.
Qatar, which has played a role in negotiations to try to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, was joined at the one-day summit in Brussels by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. The meeting discussed the conflict in the Middle East as well as the war in Ukraine, where EU leaders are seeking to leverage more support from the Gulf states.
EU officials had low hopes beforehand of any significant results from the summit, which is the first of its kind between leaders of the EU and the Gulf Co-operation Council. Talks about a free-trade agreement started more than three decades ago and had gone nowhere before being in effect abandoned.
“On Ukraine, where we have a strong position, of course we would like Gulf countries to be more on our side. We are not naive, we will not convince them to adopt our position clearly from one day to another,” a senior EU official said.
Addressing EU leaders, Sheikh Tamim said any double standards in the treatment of conflicts, such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, could undermine the “collective security” of the world order.
There needed to be a “sovereign and independent” Palestinian state that stood “side by side” with the Israeli state, he said. “It is important to note the seriousness of crimes perpetrated by Israel against civilians, and we call for the EU to play a major role in order to bring together the world for the two-state solution.”
When it came to Ukraine the emir said the position of the Gulf states recognised the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries. The council of Gulf countries “supports all brokers that try to find a peaceful settlement to this conflict”, he said.
Among the Gulf delegation was Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader who US intelligence said approved the operation that led to the brutal murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Daniel Freund, a Green Party MEP from Germany, criticised the images of European leaders shaking hands with the Saudi crown prince as “deeply disturbing”.
In a joint statement after the meeting the EU and Gulf council said the two blocs would work towards a regional free-trade agreement.
The Gulf states pushed back strongly on a joint statement naming Russia in a section on the Ukraine war, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. As a workaround the final statement referenced a United Nations resolution that the Gulf states had previously voted for deploring the Russian invasion.
The Gulf countries, many of whom are big oil exporters, also fought to water down some of the language around climate proposals, the source said. The final statement committed to increase collaboration on renewable energy and address the challenge posed by climate change
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