Saudi Arabia hosts ‘extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit’

Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to begin an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh on Saturday, November 11, to discuss the ongoing situation in Gaza Strip.

The Kingdom was scheduled to host two extraordinary summits, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit and the Arab League summit, on Saturday.

The joint summit will replace the two separate gatherings planned earlier, the Saudi foreign ministry said late on Friday, November 10.

The joint meeting is scheduled to address the exceptional circumstances in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, aiming to unify efforts and establish a unified collective position.

The Kingdom made the decision after consulting with the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Since morning, Arab leaders including Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Syria’s Bashar Assad, and Iraq’s Abdul Latif Rashid arrived for the summit in Riyadh.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh for the first time since resolving diplomatic issues with the country under a Chinese-brokered deal earlier this year.

He was received at King Khalid International Airport by Prince Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of the Riyadh.

Arab League divided over five important clauses

The Arab League summit merged with the OIC summit over five important clauses as four countries refused to vote for tough measures against Israel.

The clauses were endorsed by eleven Arab countries and rejected by four.

Here is the clauses endorsed by Arab countries

1. Prohibiting the use of American and other military bases in Arab countries to supply Israel with weapons and ammunition
2. Freezing Arab diplomatic, economic, security, and military relations with Israel
3. Threatening to leverage oil and Arab economic capabilities to apply pressure and halt the ongoing aggression
4. Preventing Israeli civil aviation from accessing Arab airspace
5. Establishing an Arab Ministerial Committee tasked with immediate travel to New York, Washington, Brussels, Geneva, London, and Paris to convey the Arab Summit’s plea to halt Israeli aggression against Gaza.

Arab countries proposed and endorsed plan are

• Palestine

• Syria

• Algeria

• Tunisia

• Iraq

• Lebanon

• Kuwait

• Qatar

• Oman

• Libya

• Yemen

Four member countries rejected a unified stance on critical issues, highlighting the challenges in achieving such a consensus.

Saudi Arabia has constantly called for an end to the bloodshed in the occupied territories.

On Friday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in his opening speech before the Saudi-African summit held in Riyadh, expressed his condemnation of “the military aggression witnessed in the Gaza Strip, the targeting of civilians, and the continued violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupation authority . ”

For 36 days, the Israeli army has been waging a war on Gaza, destroying residential neighborhoods, killing 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children and injuring 27,490 with various injuries.