RIYADH: Representative of HH the Amir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, urged for a ceasefire and protecting civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. This came in his speech at the extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit held Monday in the Saudi capital. The Representative of HH the Amir warned of the systematic targeting of civilians, preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, imposing a policy of forced displacement and attempts to change the historical and legal status of the city of Jerusalem, calling the international community to unite and put an end to these violations.

“Meantime, we are witnessing the encroachment of the (Zionist) aggression, and its expansion to include the sovereignty of the sisterly Lebanese Republic, targeting its people and everyone on its land, including UNIFIL forces, in a flagrant violation of international norms and laws,” said the Kuwait Amir’s Representative. He called on the international community to stand in solidarity with Lebanon, enable it to regain control over its institutions, protect its citizens and territory and implement Security Council Resolution 1701.

HH Sheikh Sabah urged the summit to send a clear message to the international community and the Security Council to assume their responsibilities, restore confidence in the role and effectiveness of international community institutions and take a firm stance that leads to an immediate ceasefire, providing international protection for innocent civilians and ensuring the opening of safe corridors and the arrival of urgent humanitarian aid.

Kuwait calls for holding the Zionist occupation accountable in compliance with the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice regarding the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of occupation forces in the occupied Palestinian territory, he said. “Kuwait condemns the (Zionist) occupation’s issuance of legislation aimed at banning the work of UNRWA in the occupied Palestinian territories,” he added.

HH Sheikh Sabah renewed Kuwait’s full support for all efforts made by Qatar, Egypt and the United States to reach cease-fire in Gaza. Moreover, he reiterated Kuwait’s support for the international coalition to implement the two-state solution led by Saudi Arabia, praising the courageous steps taken by a number of friendly countries to recognize the State of Palestine, calling on the rest of countries that believe in the principles of justice, fairness and equality to take similar steps.

“Kuwait stresses its firm and historic principled position supporting the Palestinian people in their struggle to end the (Zionist) occupation, achieve all their legitimate political rights, and establish their independent state on their land within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” HH Sheikh Sabah said. He thanked the kingdom’s leadership and people for hosting this urgent summit, conveying the greetings of HH the Amir to all the participants.

Saudi Arabia also called for immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon at the joint Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit. Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Riyadh, more than a year into the Zionist-Hamas war and regional escalation, in what is seen as a chance to send a message to US president-elect Donald Trump.

Opening the summit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the international community must “immediately halt the (Zionist) actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon”, condemning the Zionist entity’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 (Zionist) aggression,” he said.

A draft resolution for the summit stresses “firm support” for “national rights” for the Palestinian people, “foremost among which is their right to freedom and to an independent, sovereign state”. Just hours earlier, newly appointed Zionist Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was not “realistic” to establish a Palestinian state, dismissing it as a “Hamas state”.

“I don’t think this position is realistic today and we must be realistic,” Saar said in Jerusalem after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his commitment to a “sovereign” country. Far-right Zionist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday he hoped the Zionist entity would extend sovereignty into the occupied West Bank in 2025 and that he would push the government to engage the incoming Trump administration to gain Washington’s support.

Prince Mohammed also called on the Zionist entity not to attack Iran, highlighting improving ties between Saudi Arabia and its former regional rival. He said the international community should oblige the Zionist entity “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands”.

In October, Saudi Arabia announced it had held war games with Iran and other countries in the Sea of Oman. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s top military official, Fayyad Al-Ruwaili, arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials. Prince Mohammed and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke by phone on Sunday ahead of Monday’s summit, which is a follow-up to the gathering in November 2023. Pezeshkian is not attending because of pressing “executive matters”, an Iranian government statement said, and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref traveled to Riyadh instead.

Iran said the “world is waiting” for Trump’s incoming US government to stop the Zionist entity’s wars with Hamas and Hezbollah, as it condemned a wave of Zionist assassinations as “organized terrorism”. “The American government is the main supporter of the actions of the Zionist regime” Aref told the summit. “The world is waiting for the promise of the new government of this country to immediately stop the war against the innocent people of Gaza and Lebanon.” The “’targeted killing’ (operations)... are nothing but lawlessness and organized terrorism and turn the security apparatus into a tool to kill leaders and citizens of the countries,” Aref added.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned that the country was suffering an “existential” crisis and hit out at countries meddling in its internal affairs. Countries should stop “interfering in its internal affairs by supporting this or that group, but rather support Lebanon as a state and entity”, Mikati said.

The Saudi foreign ministry announced plans for the summit in late October during a meeting, also in Riyadh, of a new “international alliance” to press for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Zionist military campaign has killed more than 43,600 people in Gaza, most of them civilians. – Agencies