Dozens of heads of state from Arab countries and Muslim-majority nations arrived in Riyadh this Saturday to participate in an extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit to address the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, call for a ceasefire and prevent the war from expanding in the region.
The meeting, requested last week by Saudi Arabia and Palestine, will be attended by the main presidents and leaders of the Muslim world, who have been arriving in Riyadh since Friday in the midst of the Israeli escalation against the Gaza Strip.
Among the most prominent leaders are the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani; the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí; the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan; the Egyptian Abdelfatah al Sisi; Jordanian King Abdullah II; Syrian President Bashar al Assad; or the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Senior officials from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have also attended, countries that established ties with Israel in 2020 and that have issued harsh condemnations against the incessant Israeli ground and bombing campaign, although the complaints so far have not affected their relations with the Jewish State.
Also invited was the Commissioner General of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, who called on Arab countries to intensify their efforts to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and to “restore hope” to the Palestinian people “before it is too late.”
(Also read: Anti-Semitism resurfaces after Hamas attacks on Israel: what is it and how to address it?)
The meeting was convened by the Arab League, which makes up 22 countries, and by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), made up of 57 countries that include non-Arab Muslim states, such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The head of Saudi diplomacy, Faisal bin Farhan, chaired the preparatory meeting for this double summit, of which A resolution is expected to come out for an “immediate cessation of military operations” by Israel in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages held by the Islamist group Hamas and the rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians.
The summit will also focus attention on ways to prevent the war that began on October 7 between Hamas and Israel from expanding throughout the region.one of the main concerns of Middle Eastern countries.
(You can read: More than 100 UN workers have died in the Gaza Strip due to bombings)
The calls of the countries at the summit
In the opening speech of the summit, the crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, said that The only way to stop the war in the Gaza Strip and achieve peace in the Middle East is through “the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
“We are convinced that to achieve peace and stability a Palestinian state must be established,” said Bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia, a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause, defends the two-state solution, which contemplates the creation of an independent Palestinian nation, as the main way to achieve peace, and insists on implementing this measure to stop the bloodshed that has begun. a month ago in the Gaza Strip.
In this sense, The president also urged to stop Israeli ground operations and bombings against the Palestinian enclave, the release of the more than 200 hostages captured by the Islamist group Hamas and that mechanisms be implemented to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“We are facing a crisis that testifies to the failure of the Security Council and the UN,” lamented Bin Salman, who added that the “double standards” of the Western international community in the face of the incessant Israeli campaign in Gaza “does not allow us to achieve peace.” “.
(Also: Israel accepts ‘military pauses’ of four hours a day in northern Gaza, according to the US)
For his part, the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al Sisi, This Saturday he called for an “international investigation of any action that has violated international law” by Israel in the Gaza Strip, where in just over a month more than 11,000 people have died as a result of Israeli bombings.
“Civilians in Gaza are being exposed to acts typical of the Middle Ages,” denounced Al Sisi, who reiterated his condemnation of the “murder of innocents and all acts that violate international law.”
In his speech, he warned that “the international community must assume its responsibility for the protection of civilians in Gaza,” as well as the sustained and unhindered arrival of humanitarian aid to the enclave, where assistance is arriving in dribs and drabs and is insufficient to do facing the needs of the population.
In this sense, he indicated that “Israel has to assume its responsibility for being the occupying force,” while condemning the “collective punishment” imposed by the Jewish State against Gaza in retaliation for the attacks by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7. , which left about 1,200 dead.
(Continue reading: ‘You cannot reoccupy the Gaza Strip’: Antony Blinken’s warning to Israel)
At the same time, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused the United States of being “responsible for the absence of a political solution” to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and stated that “it has to assume its responsibility to establish peace” in the Middle East.
“The United States is responsible for the absence of a political solution, we call on it to end the Israeli occupation of our land and holy places,” Abbas said during the emergency summit.
Abbas, who despite his lack of popularity has remained the main interlocutor of the Palestinians before the international community, assured that the war in the Gaza Strip is a “historic moment” in which “everyone has to assume their responsibility to achieve peace.”
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