Saudi Arabia and Muslim countries called on Saturday 11 October for an immediate end to military operations in Gaza, declaring at a joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh that Israel bears responsibility for “crimes” against Palestinians.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) gathered Arab and Muslim leaders for the summit in hopes of pressing the US and Israel to end the bombing campaign on Gaza that has killed at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women.
Leaders from both the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) attended the summit, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
MbS said the kingdom affirms its “condemnation and categorical rejection of this barbaric war against our brothers in Palestine.”
“We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe that proves the failure of the Security Council and the international community to put an end to the flagrant Israeli violations of international laws,” he said in an address to the summit.
Raisi urged Islamic countries to impose oil and goods sanctions on Israel.
“There is no other way but to resist Israel, we kiss the hands of Hamas for its resistance against Israel,” Raisi said in his address.
Erdogan has previously refused Iranian requests to block oil exports to Israel, which receives 40 percent of its oil from Turkiye’s close ally, Azerbaijan. The oil passes from Azerbaijan by pipeline through Turkiye and is loaded on ships at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan before being shipped to Israel.
The joint Arab League-OIC summit was called after the Arab League failed to pass a resolution concerning the Gaza war the previous day, Friday 10 November.
Arab League countries were divided over “important clauses” that could not be adopted in its joint response to Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, according to a report by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
The report said that four “influential countries” in the Arab League had prevented the adoption of proposals that carry concrete measures against Israel.
These included prohibiting the use of US and other military bases in Arab countries to supply Israel with weapons and ammunition; freezing Arab diplomatic, economic, security, and military relations with Israel; and threats to leverage oil and Arab economic capabilities to apply pressure and halt the ongoing aggression.
The measures were proposed and endorsed by 11 of the 22 Arab League members, while four voted against and the remaining countries abstained.
Those voting for the measures included Palestine, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Libya and Yemen.
The four countries who voted against and those who abstained were not disclosed.
Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza, but has shot down missiles fired by Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement targeting the southern Israeli port city of Eilat.
Because Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel damaged Israel’s oil terminal in Ashkelon on the Mediterranean sea, Israel must receive ships bringing oil from Azerbaijan and other countries via the Red Sea to Eilat.
Jordan has allegedly allowed the US to use its territory to transport heavy military equipment for Israel on 15 special aircraft, as well as allowing the transport of US special forces on one plane and two drones.
Egypt has long partnered with Israel to maintain the economic and military siege on the Gaza strip.
The UAE has insisted it will not break relations with Israel, which were normalized in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. The UAE is a large purchaser of Israeli weapons, and relies on Israeli and US-made missile defense systems.