A joint summit of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) and the Arab League was held yesterday Saturday (November 11) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arab leaders from different countries attended the conference. At the conference, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi called on Muslim countries to impose an oil and product embargo on Israel.
In addition, Arab leaders from the conference demanded a binding UN resolution to end Israel’s aggression in Gaza. This information was given in a report of Al Jazeera.
The leaders of the Arab League (22 member countries) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries (57) held an emergency conference on Saturday in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, regarding the ongoing conflict between the Palestinian independence group Hamas and Israel. The emergency conference was called amid global outrage over Israel’s indiscriminate attack on Gaza.
In a final declaration after the summit, the leaders rejected Israel’s self-defense argument as a justification for military operations and airstrikes in Gaza. However, they could not agree on any punitive economic or political measures against Israel.
At that time, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi called upon Muslim countries to impose an oil and product embargo on Israel. At the conference, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said, “If we don’t have something to put pressure on Israel, then whatever action we take or whatever speech we give will be of no use.”
At the conference, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said, “Genocide is being carried out on Palestinians.” He urged them to be protected internationally.
In addition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized Western countries for supporting Israel at the conference. He said, “It is a shame that Western countries, which always speak for human rights and freedom, are silent today about the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
Meanwhile, some Arab diplomats, on the condition of not revealing their identity, said that at the conference, some countries including Algeria and Lebanon offered to threaten Israel and its allies with stopping the supply of fuel oil. At the same time, they proposed to break the diplomatic relations of Arab League countries with Israel. However, at least three countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, voted against the proposal, so it was canceled.
On the other hand, Rabha Saif Alam, a Middle East expert at the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies, is not at all surprised by the lack of consensus among Arab and Islamic countries regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “The rift between America’s Arab allies and countries close to Iran will not be resolved overnight,” he said.
