Saudi Arabia’s MBS calls for immediate end to Israel’s war in Gaza, Lebanon | Israel-Palestine conflict news

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has demanded that Israel immediately end its military aggression in Gaza and Lebanon at the opening of a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in Riyadh.

In a speech before the joint summit of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday, the crown prince, also known as MBS, condemned “the massacre committed against the Palestinian and Lebanese people”.

He called on Israel “to refrain from any further aggression” and urged countries around the world to recognize Palestinian statehood.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary general of the Arab League, also joined MBS in condemning Israel’s military operation in Gaza and Lebanon, saying “words cannot express the plight of the Palestinian people”.

“The actions that Israel has taken against the Palestinian people undermine the efforts to achieve lasting peace. It is only with justice that we will be able to establish lasting peace,” said Aboul Gheit.

“The world cannot turn a blind eye” to Israeli violence, he stressed.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told the summit that his country is suffering an “unprecedented” crisis that threatens its existence as Israel wages war against Hezbollah.

“Lebanon is going through an unprecedented historical and existential crisis that threatens the country’s present and future,” he said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian did not attend the meeting due to urgent “executive matters”.

But Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref condemned Israel’s killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders as “organized terrorism” in remarks at the summit.

“The operations conceptualized with the misleading phrasing of ‘targeted killing’, in which Palestinian elites and leaders from other countries in the region are killed one by one or en masse, are nothing but lawlessness and organized terrorism,” he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu also attended the summit.

In the final statement on Monday, the assembled leaders said they “strongly condemn” the actions of the Israeli army “in relation to the crime of genocide … particularly in the northern Gaza Strip over the past weeks”, referring to torture, executions, disappearances and “ethnic cleansing”.

The statement also condemned attempts to cement Israel’s hold on Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, calling it “the eternal capital” of the Palestinian territories, and called for the unification of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem under one Palestinian state. state.

“We reaffirm the full sovereignty of the State of Palestine over the Occupied East (Jerusalem), the eternal capital of Palestine, and reject any Israeli decision or measure aimed at Judaizing it and consolidating its colonial occupation of the city,” the summit’s closing statement said . .

The summit comes a year after a similar gathering in Riyadh of the Cairo-based Arab League and the Jeddah-based OIC, where leaders condemned Israeli actions in Gaza as “barbaric”.

However, the leaders were unable to agree on action against Israel despite calls to cut economic and diplomatic ties with the country or disrupt its oil supplies.

The 57-member OIC and 22-member Arab League include countries that recognize Israel and those that strongly oppose its regional integration.

Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency last week – and his upcoming second term in the White House – are likely to be top of mind in Riyadh, said Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst for think tank International Crisis Group.

“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 told the AFP news agency.

“The message is likely to be dialogue, de-escalation and call for Israeli military campaigns in the region.”

Israel’s war on Gaza began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 that killed more than 1,100 people. Since then, Israel has killed more than 43,600 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians.

Israel has also killed more than 3,100 people in Lebanon since October 7 last year as it battles Iran-backed Hezbollah.