Saudi Crown Prince MBS meets with Iranian President Raisi
Iran leader visits Saudi after 11 years, normalizing relations post-7-year rift
Raisi and Sisi, Iran and Egypt leaders, aim to improve relations after the 1979 breakup
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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the country’s de facto ruler, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi held talks on the sidelines of the special summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 11 (local time).
According to Saudi state-owned SPA Press and other sources, the Crown Prince criticized the attacks on the Palestinian Gaza Strip by Israel, called for a halt to military action, and emphasized the importance of the release of hostages by the Palestinian armed faction Hamas and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
According to Iran’s Tasnim Press, the two leaders agreed to expand cooperation between their countries.
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Saudi Arabia and Iran severed diplomatic relations in 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shia cleric despite Iran’s opposition. They normalized diplomatic relations in March through China’s mediation seven years later and resumed operations at each other’s embassies.
The visit by an Iranian leader to Saudi Arabia is the first in 11 years. The two leaders discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip in a phone call on October 11, after the war between Israel and Hamas began, and held their first face-to-face meeting since the normalization of diplomatic relations.
About this, the U.S. daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that while the Saudi and Iranian governments were united in their opposition to Israel’s bombing campaign, they still clashed over a range of issues, including Iran’s support for Hamas and other armed groups in the region.
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President Raisi, meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, with whom Iran has severed diplomatic relations since 1979, emphasized the unity of Islamic nations, stating, “There are no barriers to expanding relations with Egypt.” El-Sisi also responded that he would push to improve bilateral relations, according to Tasnim Press. Iran severed ties with Egypt in 1979 after Egypt, under the mediation of the then-U.S. administration of Jimmy Carter, signed a peace treaty with Israel.
The special summit of the OIC, hosted by Crown Prince bin Salman, was attended by leaders from 57 countries, who called for the UN Security Council to make a ‘firm and binding decision’ to stop Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The summit stated in a declaration, “We condemn Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the war crimes, barbaric and cruel, inhumane massacres committed by the colonial occupation government (Israel) against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and demand their immediate cessation.”
The OIC also rejected defining the ‘revenge war’ as a ‘defensive war’ and called for the entry of a humanitarian aid convoy into the Gaza Strip.
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Bader Al-Saif, a professor at Kuwait University, told the WSJ that while the summit provided a rare opportunity for Arab and Muslim leaders to show unity on important issues to many of their people, the track record of organizations like the OIC has been little more than a series of declarations without action.
By. Ha Man Ju
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