A summit meeting in the Saudi capital gave the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s 57 nations a chance to speak with one voice on turmoil unfolding across the region, more than a year into the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
It came less than a week after Donald Trump secured a second term as president of the United States, Israel’s top military backer.
The summit’s closing statement said that “a just and comprehensive peace in the region… cannot be achieved without ending the Israeli occupation of all occupied Arab territories to the line of June 4, 1967,” referring to the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem as well as Gaza and the Golan Heights.
But interestingly the death of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah or Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was never once mentioned during the summit what to talk of condoling their deaths, nor they were given any space in Joint Statement issued at the culmination of the event.
Also only at one point in the statement it has called on Israel to not violate the territorial integrity of Iran, Iraq and Syria.
It is also noted that there wasn’t for once a leader from any Muslim nation raise the voice for Hamas or Hezbollah in support of their perceived holy fight against Israel.
Many analysts think that this summit was a deliberate attempt on part of Saudi leadership to distance itself and whole Muslim world from the terror manifestations of Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran.