Qatar Closes Israeli Trade Mission

Qatar shut down the Israeli trade mission Thursday, buckling to pressure from Iran and Saudi Arabia. Those countries had threatened to boycott an upcoming summit of Islamic nations if the office in a two-story villa remained open.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani did not give details on how and when the mission would be closed, but told a news conference that "a logical procedure" would be used.

Nor did Sheik Hamad say whether Qatar would completely sever relations with Israel. Israeli-Qatari ties are based on the trade mission which opened in 1995. There are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Sheik Hamad said the emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, instructed his ministry to shut down the mission.

News of the Qatari move broke on the Qatar News Agency, which quoted an unidentified Qatari Foreign Ministry official as saying: "To coincide with the opening of the ninth Islamic conference in Qatar, the state of Qatar has decided to close the Israeli trade representative office in Doha to consolidate Islamic solidarity."

The move was welcomed by Iran, which promptly announced that President Mohammad Khatami would attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit on Nov. 12-14.

"This decision was the correct one and it comes in line with the wishes of the Islamic nation," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said.

Saudi Arabia was more cautious. The kingdom wanted assurances that the closure of the Israeli mission would be permanent and would not be reversed after the summit, Saudi officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Only if it received such assurances would Crown Prince Abdullah attend, the sources said.
No one answered the telephone Thursday at the Israeli trade mission, which is hidden behind a white wall in a quiet residential area. Qatari police, soldiers and plainclothes security officials stood guard outside the villa, which is equipped with security cameras.

In Jerusalem, a spokeswoman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, Yaffa Ben-Ari, declined to comment, saying the ministry had not been notified by Qatar.

The Qatar News Agency said the move against the mission came "in appreciation of what the leaders of Islamic countries in the Organization of the Islamic Conference had expressed toward the critical circumstances that the Middle East is going through."

The decision followed two days of intense mediation by Oman between Qatar, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia and Iran on the other, Omani officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Qatar agreed to shut down the mission to ensure the summit's success. Oman, the only other Gulf state with ties to Israel, severed those relations following the eruption of Israeli-Palestinian clashes Sept. 28. At least 178 people have been killed in the clashes, most of them Palestinian.

Pressure began to mount on Qatar more than a week before a miisterial meeting opened Thursday to prepare for the summit.

In an opening statement at the meeting, Iran's Kharrazi called on the Islamic nation to "unify and solidify our positions in support of Palestine."

"People in the Islamic world pin their hopes on this conference to take immediate, effective and lasting measures to determine ways and means to counter the ongoing brutal and inhumane aggression and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people," the minister said.