Riyadh’s meetings about Gaza; changing Saudi tactics towards the Palestinian issue

Mehr News, International Group: Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, hosted two meetings about Gaza in the past days. The goals and importance of these meetings are examined in this article.

Saudi position regarding the Gaza war

In recent years, the Zionist regime had set the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia as its most important goal in foreign policy. Although the storm in al-Aqsa prevented the early realization of this goal, the Zionists still hope to achieve this important goal with the support of America. One month after the genocide of the Zionist regime in Gaza, Saudi Arabia hosted the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Gaza.

Riyadh, while condemning the genocide in Gaza, did not take any serious action to stop this crime and preferred to pursue his ambitious domestic goals. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was the destination of most of the trips that American officials made to the West Asian region regarding Gaza in the last 7 months. In the last month, Saudi Arabia paid more attention to the issue of Palestine and called for the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

Riyadh meetings in one week Recent

Arabia witnessed two meetings about Gaza in recent days. The meeting of the Six-Party Arab Ministerial Consultative Group was held in Riyadh. Also, the meeting of the ministerial committee appointed by the recent extraordinary joint Arab and Islamic summit on the developments in Gaza in the city of Riyadh, chaired by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and his Norwegian counterpart, Spen Barth Edde, and with the presence of foreign ministers and representatives from European countries in order to A discussion was held about the urgent need to end the war in Gaza.

In these meetings, four issues were emphasized, which are: the formation of an independent Palestinian state, stopping Genocide in Gaza, providing humanitarian aid to Gaza and freeing prisoners.

Reasons for Saudi Arabia’s greater mobilization towards war Gaza

The important question is whether holding these meetings is considered a change in Saudi Arabia’s strategy towards Gaza? The answer to this question is negative. The Saudis have only reduced their passivity towards Gaza. This change of approach has several important reasons, which are:

Arise of American and European students

One ​​of the important factors in the change of Saudi tactics towards Gaza is related to the rise of American and European students in support of Palestine and Gaza and the condemnation of the crimes of the occupation regime of Jerusalem. America’s support for the genocide in Gaza has caused the country’s academics to rise against the Biden government. While the western educated and elite strongly protest against the crimes committed by the Zionists against the people of Gaza and are not even afraid of being arrested, the continued silence and inaction of the Arab countries is a serious injury and a black record for them. The Riyadh meetings were held in such a situation that if the demands and final statements of the meetings are not followed up seriously, it will be a major defeat for them in the Palestine issue.

Palestine is still of serious importance to Arab and Islamic public opinion

Another reason for the change in Saudi tactics towards the Gaza war is that the Palestinian issue still has an important place for Arab and Islamic public opinion. The sad fact is that in the past years, many efforts were made to discredit the legitimacy of the Palestinian issue in the Arab world. One of the main goals of normalizing relations was the same issue. The war in Gaza and the genocide of the Zionist regime against the Palestinians proved once again that the issue of Palestine and support for Palestine still has a prominent place and legitimizing function for the Arab and Islamic public opinion.

Consecutive demonstrations of the people of Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria and… confirmed the truth of this matter. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution even believes that the Gaza issue is the first issue at the global level and in the world today. Therefore, in such a situation, Riyadh cannot simply pursue its domestic development goals and be indifferent to the developments in West Asia, especially the Palestinian issue. Indifference towards Gaza can become the price of degradation of the regional status and status, just as serious, decisive and active support for Gaza can also lead to accreditation of countries.

Result

On the one hand, the Zionist regime is trying to achieve the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, and on the other hand, it is trying to prevent serious and extensive support and prevent Riyadh from playing an active role in The issue of Palestine. After more than 7 months of genocide in Gaza, it seems that Saudi Arabia has changed its tactics regarding the war in Gaza. The rise of American and European students in support of Palestine, as well as the recovery of the legitimacy function of supporting Palestine in the Arab world, is one of the main reasons for Saudi Arabia’s change in tactics. Therefore, Riyadh’s current role-playing cannot be considered a change in strategy or even a deviation from the normalization of relations with Tel Aviv.

Syed Razi Emadi; Expert on West Asian issues