RIYADH: Arab and Muslim leaders meeting in the Saudi capital Saturday roundly condemned the Zionist entity’s actions in its war against Hamas in Gaza. Indescribable crimes are being committed against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza while we are convening at the moment, said Representative of HH the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, on Saturday, addressing the extraordinary Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.

The Zionist occupation is leading an unjustified collective punishment enveloped by dual standards, going counter to all relevant international and humanitarian resolutions, noted HH Sheikh Mishal, calling on the international community, specially the UN Security Council to enact its role in immediately halting the bloodshed and provide international protection for the Palestinian people, welcoming at the same time the UN General Assembly’s decision to call for a humanitarian truce; reflective of the magnitude of the crisis in Gaza.

Kuwait, HH Sheikh Mishal stressed, is all for a sustainable peace in the region, starting with a final and just solution for the Palestinian cause according to the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant international references, reiterating that the cause will always be Kuwait’s top foreign policy priorities.

The emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes after Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks that Zionist officials say left about 1,200 people dead and 239 taken captive. The Zionist entity’s subsequent aerial and ground offensive has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday said they rejected any proposal that would keep Gaza separate

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from the West Bank in a future Palestinian state. The final statement from the summit stressed the importance of “the unity of Gaza and the West Bank as the territory of the Palestinian State”, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Host Saudi Arabia “confirms that it holds the occupation (Zionist) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said as Saturday’s summit began. “We are certain that the only way to guarantee security, peace and stability in the region is to end the occupation, siege and the settlements,” he said of the Zionist entity’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March, said Islamic countries should designate the Zionist army a “terrorist organization” for its conduct in Gaza. The Arab League and the OIC, a 57-member bloc that includes Iran, were originally meant to meet separately.

Arab diplomats told AFP the decision to merge the meetings came after Arab League delegations failed to reach an agreement on a final statement.

Some countries, including Algeria and Lebanon, proposed responding to the devastation in Gaza by threatening to disrupt oil supplies to the Zionist entity and its allies as well as severing the economic and diplomatic ties that some Arab League nations have with Israel, the diplomats said. However, at least three countries — including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalized ties with the Zionist entity in 2020 – rejected the proposal, according to the diplomats who spoke on condition on anonymity.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said a lack of concrete punitive measures against the Zionist entity would render the summit toothless. “If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give will have no meaning,” said Assad, who was welcomed back into the Arab fold this year after an extended rift over his country’s civil war. He said no Middle Eastern country should engage in any “political process” with the Zionist entity, including developing economic relations, until a lasting ceasefire is reached.

The Zionist entity and its main backer the United States have so far rebuffed demands for a ceasefire, a position that drew heavy criticism on Saturday. “The US has prevented the ceasefire in Gaza and is expanding the scope of the war,” Raisi said before departing from Tehran. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the summit that “it is a shame that Western countries, which always talk about human rights and freedoms, remain silent in the face of the ongoing massacres in Palestine”.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said Washington had “the greatest influence on (the Zionist entity)” and “bears responsibility for the absence of a political solution” to the conflict. The roster of attendees on Saturday also included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, who called for “deterrent steps to stop the ongoing war crime” in Gaza, without going into detail.

Raisi is the first Iranian president to visit Saudi Arabia since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended an OIC meeting in the kingdom in 2012. In addition to addressing the summit, he held a face-to-face meeting with Prince Mohammed, Saudi state media said on X, formerly Twitter. Iran backs Hamas as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, placing it at the center of concerns the war could expand. The conflict has already fueled cross-border exchanges between the Zionist army and Hezbollah, and the Houthis have claimed responsibility for “ballistic missiles” the rebels said targeted the Zionist entity. – Agencies