Iran's Raisi: Palestinian state 'from river to sea' the 'only solution'
Iran ally Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was also in attendance, calling to ramp up the pressure on Israel
Arab leaders and Iran's president meeting in the Saudi capital Saturday issued a routine condemnation of Israel amid its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March, said Islamic countries should designate the Israeli army a "terrorist organisation" for its conduct in Gaza.
He then offered the opinion that the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a "Palestinian state from the river to the sea," referring to a popular slogan calling for the destruction of the world's only Jewish state, a call the Islamist regime in Tehran has issued often.
The emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes a month after the bloody October 7 massacres, the worst antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust.
Host Saudi Arabia "confirms that it holds the occupation (Israeli) authorities responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom's de facto ruler, said as Saturday's summit began.
Iran ally Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was also in attendance, calling to ramp up the pressure on Israel.
"If we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we give will have no meaning," said Assad, who was welcomed back into the Arab fold this year after an extended rift over his country's civil war, where his regime was behind crimes against humanity that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands.