Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday urged Israel to refrain from attacking Iran and respect its sovereignty.
Highlighting warming ties between the Middle East rivals, the Crown Prince told a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders that the international community should oblige Israel “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands”.
This year, Iran twice fired missiles at Israel, prompting retaliation. On October 26, Israel had launched air strikes on Iranian military facilities.
The Crown Prince also called for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon at a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit that will renew calls for a Palestinian state.
In the opening remarks at the summit, 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.
Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Riyadh, more than a year into the Israel-Hamas war and regional escalation, in what is seen as a chance to send a message to US president-elect Donald Trump.
Calling Palestine as a “Hamas state”, Israel’s new Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was not “realistic” to establish a Palestinian state.
“I don’t think this position is realistic today and we must be realistic,” Saar said hours before the Arab summit in Jerusalem.
Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have often found themselves on opposing sides of regional conflicts including Syria’s.
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.