Riyadh summit calls for end to wars, Israel to be frozen out of UN

Representatives from more than 50 Arab and other Islamic countries called for an end to the violence in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon at a summit in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

The summit in its final declaration called for the mobilization of international support to freeze Israel's participation in the United Nations and to stop Israeli aggression in the region.

The summit participants requested that all countries ban the export or transfer of arms and ammunition to Israel.

The final statement strongly condemned the continued and persistent "Israeli aggression against Lebanon and the violation of its sovereignty and the sanctity of its territories," and called for an immediate ceasefire. It also condemned Israeli attacks on UN personnel in Lebanon.

The statement also lashed out at what was described as "the horrific and shocking crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip in the context of the crime of genocide, including mass graves, torture and field executions."

Participants renewed their call for the establishment of a Palestinian state. "The only path to sustainable peace in the region is the two-state solution," said Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan.

He added that the inability to stop the aggression against Gaza is "a failure for the international community."

Saudi Arabia had already invited people to a similar meeting a year ago.

Israel is conducting a war against the militant Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip alongside a parallel conflict with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been attacking Israel for a year: according to its own account, it is supporting Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which in turn committed a massacre with some 1,200 deaths in Israel on October 7, 2023.