Saudi crown prince condemns Gaza ‘genocide’ at Arab-Muslim summit, demands immediate Gaza, Lebanon

Opening the summit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the international community must “immediately halt the Israeli actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon”, condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza as “genocide”.

“(Saudi Arabia) affirms its support for the brothers in Palestine and Lebanon to overcome the disastrous humanitarian consequences of the ongoing Israeli aggression,” he said.

A draft resolution for the summit stresses “firm support” for “national rights” for the Palestinian people, “foremost among which is their right to freedom and to an independent, sovereign state”.

The crown prince also said Israel must respect Iran’s sovereignty, not attack its territory.

Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia to address the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, a chance to send a message to US President-elect Donald Trump.

The Saudi foreign ministry announced plans for the summit in late October during a meeting, also in Riyadh, of a new “international alliance” to press for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The Crown Prince called on Israel to respect Iran’s sovereignty and refrain from attacking Iranian soil.

Mohammed bin Salman told the summit that the international community should oblige Israel “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands”.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have maintained high-level contact as part of efforts to contain the war that broke out in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.

This diplomatic outreach led to the first phone call between Prince Mohammed and Iran’s then-president Ebrahim Raisi – just five days after the war broke out – and a visit by Raisi to Riyadh a year ago for a joint summit of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

In October, Saudi Arabia announced it had held war games with Iran and other countries in the Sea of Oman.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s top military official, Fayyad Al Ruwaili, arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials.

Prince Mohammed and Iran’s current president, Masoud Pezeshkian, spoke by phone on Sunday ahead of Monday’s summit, which is a follow-up to the gathering in November 2023.

Fears of wider conflict

Pezeshkian is not attending because of pressing “executive matters”, an Iranian government statement said, and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref travelled to Riyadh instead.

The Gaza war and subsequent fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah raised fears of even wider conflagration. Iran this year twice fired missiles at Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation, most recently on October 26 when it hit Iranian military facilities.

The summit comes one year after a similar gathering in Riyadh of the Cairo-based Arab League and the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation during which leaders condemned Israeli forces’ actions in Gaza as “barbaric”.

This time around, Trump’s election last week for a second term in the White House is likely to be on leaders’ minds, said Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.

“This summit is very much an opportunity for regional leaders to signal to the incoming Trump administration what they want in terms of US engagement,” she said.

“The message will likely be one of dialogue, de-escalation and calling out Israeli military campaigns in the region.”

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 43,600 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, began firing on Israel after the October 7 attack. The regular cross-border exchanges escalated in late September when Israel intensified its air strikes and sent ground troops into southern Lebanon.

Despite criticism of the impact Israel’s military campaign has had on Gaza civilians, outgoing US President Joe Biden ensured that Washington remained Israel’s most important military backer during more than a year of fighting.

‘Rely on the Saudis’

In his first term, Trump’s actions showed him as an even firmer supporter of Israel. He defied international consensus by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving Washington’s embassy there.

He also endorsed Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

Under the Abraham Accords, Trump oversaw the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Morocco.

Though Saudi Arabia did not join those agreements, Trump cultivated warm ties with the kingdom while in office and has deepened his business connections to the region during the Biden years.

Saudi Arabia has pressed pause on a US-brokered deal where it would recognise Israel in return for security and economic benefits, insisting there will be no diplomatic ties without a Palestinian state.

Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham, said Riyadh will use Monday’s summit to signal to the incoming Trump team that it remains a strong partner.

Disagreement

The message is that Trump “can rely on the Saudis as being representatives of the Muslim world”, and that “if you want to extend American interests in the region, Saudi Arabia is your bet”, he said.

The 57-member OIC and 22-member Arab League include countries which recognise Israel and those firmly opposed to its regional integration.

Last year’s summit in Riyadh saw disagreement on measures like severing economic and diplomatic ties with Israel and disrupting its oil supplies.

Karim said the post-summit statement on Monday will likely “strongly condemn Israel… while also pushing for greater American leverage and diplomacy on the issue.”

The November 2023 meeting featured an appearance by Iran’s then-president Ebrahim Raisi, highlighting how regional diplomacy has changed since Trump was last in office.

In March 2023, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced a China-brokered rapprochement after seven years of severed ties. The Middle East heavyweights have maintained regular high-level contact as part of efforts to contain the ongoing conflicts.

Iranian state media said the chief of staff of the Saudi armed forces was to arrive in Tehran Sunday for talks, a rare high-level visit.