Gaza in spotlight as Arab League, OIC hold joint summit in Riyadh

TEHRAN: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit meeting comes amid raging Gaza conflict.

The emergency meeting of the Arab League also being held in Riyadh. The Arab League and the OIC were originally meant to meet separately, but the Saudi foreign ministry announced early Saturday that the blocs’ summits would be combined.

The meeting expected to underscore demands that Israel’s war in Gaza end before the violence draws in other countries.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two Middle East heavyweights reached a surprise rapprochement deal in March, ending seven years of severed ties.

Iran backs Hamas as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Huthi rebels, placing it at the centre of concerns the war could expand.

The conflict has already fuelled cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, and the Huthis have claimed responsibility for “ballistic missiles” the rebels said targeted southern Israel.

The emergency meeting of the Arab League and the OIC comes after Hamas militants’ October 7 attacks that Israeli officials say left about 1,200 people dead and 239 taken hostage.

Israel’s subsequent aerial and ground offensive has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

A joint meeting underscores the importance of reaching “a unified collective position that expresses the common Arab and Islamic will regarding the dangerous and unprecedented developments witnessed in Gaza and the Palestinian territories,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday condemned “continued violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupation forces,” his first public comments on the war.