Iran urged the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to impose an oil boycott on Israel during a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday.
The urgent meeting was convened to discuss the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “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 Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also called for assembling a team of Islamic lawyers to document potential Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Iran urged the embargo after a blast detonated at a Gaza hospital, allegedly killing hundreds. The event sparked widespread protests in Arab states, which blamed Israel.
Israel provided ample evidence, including video, that the incident was caused by an errant Islamic Jihad missile that went off course, a fairly common occurrence.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Israel Wednesday that “based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team—not you.”
The outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, which caught Israel by surprise on Oct. 7 in a terrorist offensive that killed more than 1,400, mostly civilians, has derailed efforts by the Netanyahu government to expand peaceful relations with Muslim states as sources say Saudi Arabia has paused normalization talks.
The White House, which was brokering the talks, said hopes for a deal are still alive with Biden telling CBS‘s “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Monday: “The Saudis, and the Emiratis, and other Arab nations understand that their security and stability is enhanced if there’s normalization of relations with Israel.”
