Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday embarked on a visit to Qatar, where he will attend an emergency Arab-Islamic summit held in the wake of last week’s Israeli strike on Doha.
President Erdogan is accompanied by First Lady Emine Erdogan, National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalin, Akif Cagatay Kilic, chief advisor to the president on foreign policy and security, Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, and Justice and Development (AK) Party's deputy chair Halit Yerebakan.
The Arab-Islamic summit in Doha brings together heads of state and senior officials from across the region.
The summit was called by Qatar in response to the Israeli attack that targeted Hamas leaders in Doha last week, killing five group members and a Qatari security officer.
“It is time for the international community to stop applying double standards and punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, told a meeting Sunday.
“This regime has attacked many Islamic countries, including Qatar, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Yemen," he said. "It does whatever it wants, and unfortunately, the United States and European countries also support these actions.”
Qatar, along with the US and Egypt, has been a mediator in negotiations to end the Israeli war on Gaza, where nearly 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
