An Unexpected Unity at Riyadh Summit
On Saturday, 57 Arab and Muslim nations called for a halt to military operations in Gaza, dismissing Israel's self-defense rationale for its actions against Palestinians. In an extraordinary joint summit in Riyadh, the 22-member Arab League and the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (to which all Arab League members belong) unanimously called for the International Criminal Court to probe “war crimes and crimes against humanity” being perpetrated by Israel in the Palestinian territories. The summit also urged an arms embargo against Israel and the establishment of an Arab-Islamic committee to supervise diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza. The summit called for the immediate entry of humanitarian aid convoys to bring food, medicine and fuel into the Gaza Strip. Leaders including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended: the Sunni and Shia worlds alike, and the newly welcomed-back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Raisi’s trip to Saudi Arabia is the first by an Iranian head of state in more than a decade. Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad bin Salman presented himself as leader of the Arab-Muslim world, inviting both allies and foes.
Led by Algeria, certain Arab nations advocated for a total severance of diplomatic ties with Israel. However, other Arab countries that have established diplomatic relations with Israel resisted this stance, emphasizing the importance of maintaining open channels with the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Just as interesting was the abrupt resurgence of the Palestinian cause in the awareness of Arab and Muslim nations. Deep divisions continue to impede the formulation of a shared vision to conclude the ongoing conflict and establish a diplomatic framework for what lies ahead. But what led to the merging of the Arab League and OIC conferences was precisely disagreement. The lack of unity created political pressure, and MBS and others responded with a move to show unity. The surprising thing is not that there are still sharp regional divisions but that the joint summit occurred at all.
Hamas’s action on 7 October, grotesque as it was, did have a rationale: To upset the emerging consensus, as the Abraham Accords continued to bring Israel and various Muslim states into a new and less hostile configuration, that the fate of Palestinians could safely be ignored. That message was sent not just to Israel but also, perhaps primarily, to Arab states like Saudi Arabia. The illusion that the Palestinians could be ignored indefinitely as the Abraham Accords process expanded has now been dispelled.
The global community is confronted with a radical Israeli government uninterested in compromise, an ineffectual Palestinian leadership further weakened by recent events, and a U.S. administration preoccupied with impending presidential elections. The conditions for a political initiative are unfavorable.Therapidly diminishing window for peace and regional integration signals a heightened risk for Israel of regression to the conditions of 1948. The swift reversal of the United States' role as a security provider has invited comparison in the region to the speed with which France in West Africa went from the center to near the margins of the regional security balance. What was really striking, then, about the Arab League-OIC joint summit was that it showed the regional players, large and small, willing to get together with some urgency and compromise on reaching a modest common platform. What that might mean for Palestinians is unclear but it does suggest a certain reflex for peaceful discussion and a minimal unity that have not been features of regional politics before.