Arab leaders and the Iranian president are meeting in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for a joint summit that is expected to highlight the urgency of ending the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a conflict that risks flaring up. the region.
Emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are being held in Riyadh, five weeks after the start of the war triggered by the bloody attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil, on October 7.
Around 1,200 people were killed on the Israeli side, the majority civilians on the day of the Hamas attack, according to Israeli authorities. And 239 people were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip, according to the same sources.
Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombed the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas. More than 11,000 people, including at least 4,500 children, were killed there, according to the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health.
Saudi Arabia ‘holds occupation authorities [israéliennes] responsible for crimes committed against the Palestinian people,” declared Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the opening of the summit.
“We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, siege and colonization,” he added.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïsi, who is visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time since the rapprochement of the two countries in March, called on Islamic countries to designate the Israeli army as a “terrorist organization”.
He also met the Saudi prince, the first contact at this level since the reestablishment in March of diplomatic relations between the two countries thanks to Chinese mediation.
Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas and blames the group for the high death toll, accusing it of using civilians as human shields, which it denies.
Regional divergences
The Arab League and the OIC were initially scheduled to hold their meetings separately, but the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced early Saturday that the two summits would be held jointly.
Two Arab diplomats told AFP that the decision was taken after disagreements over a final declaration from the Arab summit.
Some countries, notably Algeria and Lebanon, have proposed severing economic and diplomatic ties with Israel and stopping supplying oil to this country and its allies, according to these diplomats. However, at least three countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020, have rejected this proposal.
International humanitarian organizations have stepped up calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, where there is a dire shortage of drinking water and medicine.
Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas in Gaza, said, however, that it expected “nothing” from this summit through Mohammad al-Hindi, its deputy secretary general.
Israel and its main ally, the United States, have so far rejected demands for a ceasefire.
“It is shameful that Western countries, which always talk about human rights and freedoms, remain silent in the face of the ongoing massacres in Palestine,” declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, for his part stressed that Washington had “the greatest influence over Israel” and “bears (consequently) the responsibility for the absence of a political solution” to the conflict.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the absence of punitive measures against Israel would make the summit “insignificant” and advocated not engaging in a political process with Israel until a ceasefire was reached. fire in Gaza.
“Persuasive measures are needed to stop war crimes,” declared the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose country is involved in efforts to obtain the release of Israeli hostages and foreigners detained in Gaza.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are among the summit participants.
Iran supports Hamas but also the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who raise fears of an extension of the conflict.
Exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah are daily on the Israeli-Lebanese border, while the Houthis have claimed several drone and missile attacks against southern Israel.