By Ibrahim al-Khazen
ISTANBUL (AA) — Iran's president and Qatar's prime minister on Monday reviewed developments in the region and ways to maintain stability amid Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani arrived earlier in Tehran to meet Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
During their meeting, Al Thani and Pezeshkian discussed "developments in the region, and ways to maintain the region's security and stability."
For months, Qatar, along with the US and Egypt, has been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have stalled due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to meet Hamas' demands to stop the war.
On Sunday, Israeli warplanes launched over 40 airstrikes on southern Lebanon, the most severe attack since cross-border attacks between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah began on Oct. 8, 2023. The Israeli army claimed that the attacks aimed to prevent a rocket barrage by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese group, for its part, said that it had launched hundreds of rockets and missiles deep into Israel as the “first phase” of its response to last month’s assassination of its senior commander Fouad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut.
Iran also vowed to retaliate against Israel over assassinating the Palestinian Hamas group's leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
The escalation comes against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which killed over 40,400 Palestinians since last Oct. 7 after a Hamas attack. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar