RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia brings together Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday for an extraordinary joint Arab Islamic summit in Riyadh, at a time when the kingdom is exerting its influence to pressure the United States and Israel to end hostilities in Gaza.
Dozens of leaders, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, are attending the summit, which is expected to strongly condemn the Israeli campaign on Gaza and call for an end to the forced displacement of Palestinians there.
The conference will also be attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was welcomed back to the Arab League earlier this year.
Raisi said on Saturday that it was time to act on the conflict rather than talk as he headed to Riyadh.
“Gaza is not an arena for words. It must be an arena for action,” he said at Tehran airport before leaving. “Today, the unity of Islamic countries is very important,” he added.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman condemned, on Friday, “the military attacks on the Gaza Strip, the targeting of civilians, and violations of international law by the Israeli occupation authorities.”
The Middle East has been witnessing a state of tension since Hamas fighters invaded Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people.
Since then, Israel has escalated its assault on Gaza with 11,078 Gazans killed as of Friday, 40% of them children, according to Palestinian officials.
The fighting escalated overnight into Saturday near crowded Gaza City hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.
The war has turned traditional alliances in the Middle East upside down, with Riyadh dealing more closely with Iran and rejecting American pressure to condemn Hamas and freeze its plans to normalize relations with Israel.
Raisi’s trip to Saudi Arabia is the first visit by an Iranian president since Tehran and Riyadh ended years of hostility under a Chinese-brokered agreement in March.
The Kingdom is scheduled to host two extraordinary summits, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit and the Arab League summit, on Saturday and Sunday. The Saudi Foreign Ministry said that the joint summit will replace the two separate meetings in light of the situation in Gaza.
She added that the joint meeting “will be held in response to the exceptional circumstances that the Palestinian Gaza Strip is going through, as countries feel the necessity of unifying efforts and coming out with a unified collective position.”
The decision came after the Kingdom consulted with the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, according to the statement.
Two delegates told Reuters that the Arab foreign ministers who held an emergency meeting on Thursday to prepare for the summit were divided after some countries, led by Algeria, called for the severing of all diplomatic relations with Israel.
They said that a bloc of Arab countries, which established diplomatic relations with Israel, opposed this, stressing the need to keep channels open with the Netanyahu government.
(Reporting by Aziz Al-Yaqoubi and Moaz Abdel Aziz in Cairo – Prepared by Muhammad for the Arab Bulletin) Written by Aziz Al-Yaqoubi; Edited by Sandra Maler, William MacLean
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