Arab, Muslim leaders fly to Saudi for talks on ME wars

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud chairs the preparatory Ministerial Meeting for the Arab-Islamic extraordinary summit in Riyadh, Sunday.

Arab and Muslim leaders have begun arriving in Saudi Arabia for a summit scheduled for Monday that will focus on Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Saudi state media said.

The Saudi foreign ministry announced the summit in late October, during the first meeting of an “international alliance” pushing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Attendees will “discuss the continued Israeli aggression on the Palestinian territories and the Lebanese Republic, and the current developments in the region,” the official Saudi Press Agency said.

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

The Saudi state-affiliated Al-Ekhbariya news channel broadcast footage on Sunday of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati landing in Riyadh.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also scheduled to attend, the Pakistani foreign ministry said last week, adding that he planned to call for “an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza” and the “immediate cessation of the ongoing Israeli adventurism in the region”.

In a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would not take part in the meeting due to pressing “executive matters”, according to a government statement.

Pezeshkian noted that Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref will attend instead.