Arab-Islamic summit did not agree on concrete steps against Israel

The leaders of Arab and Muslim countries strongly condemned Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip and demanded its immediate end. These demands were reflected in the final resolution of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit. The meeting of the organization following the summit of the League of Arab States (LAS) took place on November 11 in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.

Initially, it was assumed that the summits of the Arab League and the OIC would be held separately, on November 11 and 12, respectively. The decision to combine these summits was made “taking into account the exceptional circumstances occurring in the Gaza Strip.” In addition, the unification of events occurred because the leaders of all countries “realized the importance of developing a collective position regarding the ongoing crisis,” media reports.

Countries participating in the Arab-Islamic summit accused Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. “We condemn Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and war crimes, as well as the barbaric, inhumane and brutal massacres committed by the colonial occupation government against the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” the final resolution said.

The Arab League and OIC states came to the conclusion that “a precondition for peace with Israel and the establishment of normal relations is the end of its occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories.” The parties once again drew attention to the need to create an independent Palestinian state based on the borders of June 4, 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

The meeting participants considered the efforts of the UN to resolve the conflict unsatisfactory. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud accused the organization of failing to influence Israel to stop fighting in the Gaza Strip. “We are faced with a humanitarian catastrophe, which demonstrates the inability of the UN Security Council and the international community to put an end to Israel’s crimes, which is a manifestation of a policy of double standards,” the crown prince emphasized.

From the summit stands there was also a call to arm the Palestinians. The initiator here was Iran, whose president Ibrahim Raisi visited Saudi Arabia for the first time. “Muslim countries should arm the Palestinian people. Resistance is the only way to counter Israeli violence. Countries of the world, including Muslim ones, need to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories,” Raisi said on the sidelines of the summit.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the convening of an international conference in Riyadh to resolve the Palestinian issue. According to the Turkish President, the solution to the conflict will be the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, which can be achieved at the conference he proposes. All countries of the Middle East, including Palestine and Israel, will be able to take part in it. “We have the strength and capabilities for this,” Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

Despite the strong condemnation of Israel’s actions by the leaders of Arab and Islamic countries, the parties failed to agree on taking tough measures against Tel Aviv. Algeria’s initiative to impose sanctions against Israel by Arab states was rejected.

The proposals included preventing the use of American and other military bases in Arab countries to supply Israel, freezing Arab countries’ economic, military and diplomatic relations with Israel, and threatening to use Arab countries’ oil and economic capabilities to pressure the West to stop aggression.

This plan was supported by 11 Arab League countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia and Palestine. Members of the Arab League failed to reach a consensus, since Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco opposed the Algerian plan.

Arab and Islamic countries initially did not intend to introduce tough measures against Israel in practice, says Andrey Zeltyn, a senior lecturer at the School of Oriental Studies at the Higher School of Economics. Of course, they didn’t even think about declaring war on Israel, and an economic blockade, including at Algeria’s proposal, would have been pointless. The Algerian plan itself turned out to be more of a PR move than a practical one, and therefore was blocked by the pragmatic position of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is completely unclear who and how could block Israel, especially in conditions when the main ally of many regional states is the United States. As a result, the summit itself was organized so that its participants could “hold hands and find the ground under their feet.” What is happening now in the Middle East, the expert continues, shows that after many years of normalization of relations with Israel, no one expected such an escalation. The summit confirmed the fact that Hamas had succeeded in returning the Palestinian agenda to the forefront of Middle Eastern affairs.

The summit participants in fact did not plan any specific military and political steps against Israel, agrees Boris Dolgov, leading researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. If in 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, Arab countries managed to impose an oil embargo against the West, now the situation has changed and OPEC+ cannot take such a step due to ties with the global economy.

The Algerian plan to blockade Israel also looks unviable – the OIC and the Arab League simply do not have enough leverage to implement it, the expert is sure. Given Israel’s close ties with the West, Dolgov adds, it is almost impossible to solve such a problem. “Nevertheless, the joint Arab-Islamic summit was a very significant event in the life of the region and witnessed the vigorous support of the Palestinians by its participating countries, especially Iran. Specific achievements of the meeting include a call for the creation of an international conference on the Palestinian issue, which should succeed where the UN failed,” Dolgov sums up.