Arab leaders and Iran’s president assembly within the Saudi capital Saturday roundly condemned Israel‘s lethal assaults on Gaza Strip, as fears mount the battle might attract different nations.
The emergency assembly of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes after Israel’s genocide-level assaults on the Gaza Strip that left greater than 11,000 Palestinian civilians useless.
Host Saudi Arabia “confirms that it holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom’s de facto ruler, stated as Saturday’s summit started.
“We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, siege and the settlements,” he stated of Israel‘s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first journey to Saudi Arabia for the reason that two nations mended ties in March, stated Islamic nations ought to designate the Israeli military a “terrorist organisation” for its conduct in Gaza.
The Arab League and the OIC, a 57-member bloc that features Iran, had been initially meant to satisfy individually.
Arab diplomats advised AFP the choice to merge the conferences got here after Arab League delegations failed to achieve an settlement on a closing assertion.
Some nations, together with Algeria and Lebanon, proposed responding to the devastation in Gaza by threatening to disrupt oil provides to Israel and its allies in addition to severing the financial and diplomatic ties that some Arab League nations have with Israel, the diplomats stated.
However, at the least three nations — together with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020 — rejected the proposal, in response to the diplomats who spoke on situation on anonymity.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated an absence of concrete punitive measures towards Israel would render the summit toothless.
“If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give will have no meaning,” stated Assad, who was welcomed again into the Arab fold this yr after an prolonged rift over his nation’s civil conflict.
He stated no Middle Eastern nation ought to interact in any “political process” with Israel, together with growing financial relations, till an enduring ceasefire is reached.
Israel and its essential backer the United States have to this point rebuffed calls for for a ceasefire, a place that drew heavy criticism on Saturday.
“The US has prevented the ceasefire in Gaza and is expanding the scope of the war,” Raisi stated earlier than departing from Tehran.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on the summit that “it is a shame that Western countries, which always talk about human rights and freedoms, remain silent in the face of the ongoing massacres in Palestine”.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas stated Washington had “the greatest influence on Israel” and “bears responsibility for the absence of a political solution” to the battle.
The roster of attendees on Saturday additionally included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, who referred to as for “deterrent steps to stop the ongoing war crime” in Gaza, with out going into element.
Raisi is the primary Iranian president to go to Saudi Arabia since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended an OIC assembly within the kingdom in 2012.
In addition to addressing the summit, he held a face-to-face assembly with Prince Mohammed, Saudi state media stated on X, previously Twitter.
Iran backs Hamas in addition to Lebanon‘s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Huthi rebels, inserting it on the centre of considerations the conflict might broaden.
The battle has already fuelled cross-border exchanges between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, and the Huthis have claimed accountability for “ballistic missiles” the rebels stated focused southern Israel.
Analysts say Saudi Arabia feels susceptible to potential assaults due to its shut ties with Washington and the truth that it was contemplating normalising ties with Israel earlier than the conflict broke out.
Kim Ghattas, creator of a guide on the Iran-Saudi rivalry, stated throughout a panel organised by the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington that “the Saudis are hoping that the fact they didn’t normalise yet, and the fact that they have a channel to the Iranians, gives them some protection.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr