Saudi Arabia to host Arab-Islamic summit to ‘unify efforts’ on Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict news
Riyadh will host leaders from Iran, Turkey, Syria and other countries to discuss the Israel-Gaza war.
Saudi Arabia is holding a separate summit on Saturday, bringing together countries from the Islamic and Arab world to discuss the worsening situation in Gaza.
The kingdom’s foreign ministry announced the news late Friday, saying Saudi Arabia planned to hold two summits, one of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and one of the Arab League, on Saturday. The joint meeting took place after Saudi consulted with members of the two major organizations.
According to the ministry, the joint meeting “will be held in response to the special situations occurring in the Palestinian Gaza Strip as countries feel the need to unite efforts and come out with unified unified position”.
The OIC includes member states from across the Islamic world, including the Palestinian territories’ neighbors in Egypt and Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
With Iran repeatedly warning that the scope of the war will expand if Israel does not stop its attacks, President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to attend the meeting in Riyadh, marking the first visit by an Iranian president in 11 years.
“Gaza is not an area for words. It should be for action,” Raisi said before leaving for Riyadh on Saturday, adding that the Palestinian issue has become a central issue not only for the Muslim world but for the entire world.
“The atrocities now committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza are clear examples of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he said.
“The Americans say in their comments and messages that they do not want the scope of the war to expand, but this claim in no way corresponds to what they have done because the Americans provide fuel for Israel’s war machine. “
Hold Israel ‘accountable’
Israel has not stopped its attacks on the Gaza Strip despite growing calls for an immediate ceasefire, especially from the Arab and Islamic world.
The relentless airstrikes and ground attacks – which came in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis – have killed at least 11,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
Israel has dramatically increased its attacks on hospitals in recent days, and the United Nations has said that the lives of a million children in Gaza “hang on by a thread”.
The Arab League is made up of 22 countries, including Syria, which was adopted earlier this year after Arab leaders began talks with President Bashar al-Assad after a decade of war. civil in the country.
The Bloc’s deputy secretary-general, Hossam Zaki, said this week that the group aims to show “how the Arabs will move on the international scene to stop the attack , support Palestine and its people, criticize Israel’s occupation, and hold it accountable for its actions. crimes”.
The surprise summit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity across the region and beyond. Saudi Arabia hosted an African-Saudi summit in Riyadh on Friday, where Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman called for an end to the war.
The leaders of Russia, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan met in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana on Thursday for talks that included the situation in Gaza.
