Saudi calls for Arab unity against Iran

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman opened an emergency summit of Arab leaders in Islam’s holiest city of Mecca on Friday with a call for the international community to use all means to confront Iran, but he also said the kingdom remains committed to peace.

The summit was hastily convened after a spike in tension between Saudi Arabia and its rival Iran.

Tension has also spiked between Tehran and Washington in recent weeks, with the U.S. sending an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf. President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a hard line with Iran, first withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers last year, then imposing punishing economic sanctions on the country.

Saudi Arabia’s effort to draw regional leaders to Mecca reflects the kingdom’s desire to project a unified Muslim and Arab position on Iran.

Still, there were visible signs of tension and disagreement among the Arab officials gathered at the meetings. Morocco did not send its king amid a cooling of ties with Saudi Arabia, while Qatar sent its prime minister rather than its ruling emir amid a diplomatic standoff with Arab neighbors. Iraq, which lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, rejected the Arab League’s final statement after the summit and was not a signatory to it.

All, however, condemned the alleged sabotage of four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and a drone attack on a key Saudi oil pipeline earlier this month.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of arming Yemeni rebels behind the pipeline attack. Iran denies being involved in the incidents.

In his opening remarks, King Salman called on the international community to thwart Iran’s behaviors and urged “using all means to stop the Iranian regime from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, harboring global and regional terrorist entities and threatening international waterways.”

He added that Saudi Arabia is keen to protect the region from the scourge of war and that its “hand remains extended for peace.”

Iraq, meanwhile, struck a different tone. President Barham Salih said in his remarks that Iran is a Muslim country and neighbor.

“We do not hope for its security to be targeted since we are sharing [870 miles] of border and a number of relations,” he told the gathering of Arab League heads of state.

“Honestly, the security and stability of a neighboring Islamic country is in the interest of Muslim and Arab states,” he added.

Another summit in Mecca was held Friday, focusing largely on Palestinian statehood and independence. Leaders from the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia, were expected to participate.

With a captive audience that included King Salman, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas used his speech in Mecca to slam the Trump administration’s plan aimed at dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I would like to reconfirm our absolute rejection of the American attempts to bring down international law and international legitimacy under what is called the ‘Deal of the Century,’” he said, adding that it attempts to replace “land for peace” with “land for prosperity.”