Iran FM in Jeddah for emergency meeting, calls on Islamic countries to sanction Israel

Iran’s foreign minister has called on members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to impose an oil embargo and other sanctions on Israel and expel all Israeli ambassadors.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Wednesday to attend an extraordinary meeting of the OIC executive committee to address the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip.

"The foreign minister calls for an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with
the Zionist regime have been established," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Amir-Abdollahian also called for the formation of a team of Islamic lawyers to document potential war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza in a meeting with OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha. 

He said the OIC agenda must include “the need to seriously pursue the immediate cessation of the Zionist regime’s criminal attacks against Gaza, the immediate sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and tackle the forced displacement of the people of Gaza”.

"In today's meeting in Jeddah, the issue of the legal pursuit of Zionist war criminals and their supporters should be given serious attention and follow-up by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation," the minister added.

In remarks upon his arrival at the Jeddah airport, Amir-Abdollahian condemned as “intolerable” Israel’s bloody strike on a hospital in Gaza, expressing hopes for global action to end the genocide of the Palestinians by the “child-killing” regime.

It came hours after at least 500 people were killed in an Israeli aerial assault on the al-Ahli al-Arab hospital, which was sheltering thousands of people who had been forcibly displaced due to the occupying regime’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza.

“A few hours ago, a hospital in Gaza was targeted by the Zionist regime’s missiles and bombs. Based on our information, more than 500 patients and their companions as well as medical staff were martyred at once,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

“This crime is intolerable for the Muslims of the world and those with an awakened conscience.”

The top Iranian diplomat said he had contacted his Saudi counterpart on Tuesday about the need for a strong message calling for an immediate end to Israel’s war crimes against civilians in Gaza and their forcible displacement, and the opening of corridors for sending food, medicines and fuel to the besieged enclave.

“At the end of the [OIC] meeting, the participants … should issue a strong statement in support of Palestine,” he said.

“I hope that we will see a global joint action to stop the crime against humanity, genocide and massacre that the fake and child-killing Zionist regime has initiated.”

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The hospital carnage comes as humanitarian concerns mount over Israel’s cutoff of water, food, fuel and electricity to Gaza, home to more than 2 million people. 

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group waged a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

So far, 3,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air raids, including more than 1,000 children and 1,000 women.

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