‘Cowardly’ attack: UAE

TDT | agencies

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The United Arab Emirates said it summoned Israel’s deputy ambassador yesterday, in a formal rebuke of his country’s deadly attack against Hamas leaders in Qatar.

It issued sharp condemnations of Tuesday’s deadly strike on Qatar. The move comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, is set to meet Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the White House, a State Department schedule said.

The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned strikes on Qatar and called for de-escalation, without naming Israel which carried out the attack. The Security Council “underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar,” said the statement, which required the agreement of all 15 council members, including Israel’s ally the United States.

In the latest development, UAE foreign ministry said in a statement: “Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, summoned the Israeli Deputy Head of Mission in the United Arab Emirates, David Ohad Horsandi.”

She used the meeting to “strongly condemn and denounce the blatant and cowardly Israeli attack that targeted the State of Qatar, as well as the hostile statements made by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,” the statement said. “Any aggression against a GCC member state constitutes an attack on the collective Gulf security framework,” she added, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council regional bloc.

UAE’ saction also comes amid an emergency Arab-Islamic summit planned in Doha on Sunday and Monday to discuss a regional response to the attack.