Saudi Arabia’s King Salman joined Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday at the 29th Arab League Summit in condemning the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Abdullah opened the 22-member gathering stressing the need for a “two-state solution,” – but King Salman went further, underscoring his nation’s insistence on the establishment of a Palestinian state “with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
King Salman, as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, chaired Sunday’s Summit, held in the eastern city of Dhahran.
The monarch called for the gathering to be renamed the “Jerusalem Summit” in solidarity with the Palestinian Authority, and called on the international community to take a strong stance against Iran’s aggression in the region.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that current challenges “call for dialogue on priorities of Arab national security,”Arab News reported. Aboul Gheit also said the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad also bears responsibility for the “collapse of its homeland and loss of dignity.” Syria has been suspended from the pan-Arab body since 2011 over the regime’s actions in the war.