In Riyadh, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are holding a joint summit in the hope of reaching a “unified” position on the war in Gaza
Arab leaders and Iran’s president are meeting in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for a joint summit aimed at emphasizing the urgency of ending Israel’s attacks on Gaza before conflict grips the region. Five weeks after the start of the war triggered by the bloody attack on Israeli soil by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, the emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are taking place in Riyadh.
The Arab League and the OIC were originally scheduled to hold their meetings separately, but the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced early Saturday that the two organizations’ summits would be held jointly. This decision underlines the need to “reach a unified collective position that expresses the shared Arab and Muslim will regarding the dangerous and unprecedented events in Gaza and the Palestinian territories,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
The Arab League will “discuss the way forward on the international stage to end the aggression, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation and hold them accountable for their crimes,” said the Arab League’s deputy secretary general on Thursday Arab League, Hossam Zaki.
However, Islamic Jihad, Hamas’s ally in Gaza, said it expected “nothing” from the meeting. “We do not pin our hopes on such meetings” that have never produced results, Mohammad Al-Hindi, the group’s deputy secretary-general, said at a news conference in Beirut on Friday. “The fact that this conference is taking place after thirty-five days [de guerre] was a clear indication, he added.
Israel and its key ally the United States have so far rejected calls for a ceasefire, a stance that is expected to draw sharp criticism at meetings on Saturday.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi’s expected participation on Saturday also marks his first visit to Saudi Arabia since the surprise announcement in March to restore diplomatic ties between the two Middle East heavyweights after seven years of rift. Iran supports the Palestinian Hamas, but also the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which raise fears that the conflict will expand.
There are daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanese border, while Yemeni rebels carry out several drone and rocket attacks against southern Israel.
The Saudi monarchy, which has close ties with the United States and was considering normalizing ties with Israel before the war, fears it will be targeted, analysts say. On Friday, the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed Bin Salman, denounced “ongoing violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli occupying forces” in his first public statement on the war.