The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called for an urgent extraordinary meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss the Israel-Gaza war. The body seeks to address the “military escalation” and “threat to defenseless civilians in Gaza”.
Saudi Arabia, which chairs the current session of the Islamic Summit, has invited the member nations for the meeting to be held in Jeddah on Wednesday.
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“At the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia… the Organisation’s Executive Committee is convening an urgent open-ended extraordinary meeting at the ministerial level, to address the escalating military situation in Gaza and its environs as well as the deteriorating conditions that endanger the lives of civilians and the overall security and stability of the region,” the OIC said in a statement on its website.
The OIC is the second-largest organisation after the United Nations with a membership of 57 nations spread over four continents. It calls itself “the collective voice of the Muslim world.”
The OIC’s urgent meeting call comes on a day Saudi Arabia suspended talks on potentially normalising ties with Israel.
Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on October 7 which killed 1,300 people, sparking a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed at least 2,215 in the Gaza Strip ahead of a potential Israeli ground invasion of the territory.
“Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,” a source familiar with the discussions told news agency AFP.
The Gulf kingdom, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has never recognised Israel and did not join the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords that saw its Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco establish formal ties with Israel.
US President Joe Biden’s administration had been pushing hard in recent months for Saudi Arabia to take the same step.
Under de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the ageing King Salman, Riyadh had laid out conditions for normalisation including security guarantees from Washington and help developing a civilian nuclear programme.
In the week since Hamas launched its attack on Israel, Riyadh has voiced increasing disquiet about the fate of Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where Israel has launched thousands of strikes and ordered the evacuation of the territory’s north, prompting thousands to flee.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia denounced the displacement of Palestinians within Gaza and attacks on “defenceless civilians”, its strongest language criticising Israel since the war broke out.