President Rachid heads to Riyadh for an emergency meeting for Arab, Muslim leaders on Gaza

Shafaq News/ Iraqi President Abdullatif Jamal Rashid departed for Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning, where he will be attending an emergency meeting for leaders of Arab and Muslim countries on the situation in Gaza.

The emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza following a large-scale Hamas attack on October 7 that Israeli officials say left about 1,200 dead. More than 11,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since then.

The Arab League and the OIC were originally meant to meet separately, but the Saudi foreign ministry announced early Saturday that the blocs' summits would be combined.

A press release by the Iraqi presidency said that the president will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and two lawmakers, Jabbar al-Kinani and Wasfi al-Obaidi, and a slew of state officials.

The Saudi Press Agency said that the unexpected move aims to formulate "a unified collective position that expresses the common Arab and Islamic will regarding the dangerous and unprecedented developments witnessed in Gaza and the Palestinian territories."

The Arab League aims to demonstrate "how the Arabs will move on the international scene to stop the aggression, support Palestine and its people, condemn the Israeli occupation, and hold it accountable for its crimes", the bloc's assistant secretary-general, Hossam Zaki, said this week.

But Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Friday said it did not "expect anything" from the meeting, criticizing Arab leaders for the delay.

Israel and its main backer, the United States, have so far rebuffed demands for a ceasefire, a position that is expected to draw heavy criticism on Saturday. That tension has been on display during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent visits to the region, as well as during a stop this week in Riyadh by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who met with a number of his Arab counterparts who have called for a ceasefire.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's expected attendance on Saturday will mark his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two Middle East heavyweights reached a surprise rapprochement deal in March, ending seven years of severed ties. Iran backs Hamas, as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi group, placing it at the center of concerns the war could expand.