News - Yemen: In a message directed to the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh, Yemeni President Mahdi Al-Mashat reiterated Yemen's steadfast support for the Palestinian and Lebanese causes, emphasizing the urgent need for practical action rather than symbolic gestures.

Al-Mashat affirmed Yemen’s solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people, calling any neglect of the Palestinian cause a direct extension of the lifespan of the “occupying entity,” thereby posing a strategic threat to the entire region. The president emphasized Yemen’s view that only concrete measures would address this long standing crisis effectively.

“The Yemeni people, who support the oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza, express their firm stance on the Palestinian cause and their full belief in the necessity of confronting the Zionist entity,” Al-Mashat stated.

He urged that the minimum action the summit should take is to impose an economic blockade on Israel, initiate a comprehensive boycott, support Palestinian resistance efforts, and open border crossings with neighboring Arab states to provide assistance to Palestinians.

Al-Mashat stressed that there are numerous avenues through which Arab and Islamic countries could assert pressure on Israel to immediately halt its military aggression, adding that Yemeni efforts to support the Palestinian cause stem from a “sense of responsibility and awareness of the critical nature of this period.”

He further warned that continued neglect, overlooking of these brutal crimes, or reliance on solutions from those who have historically supported the adversary [US, UN and West] would have severe repercussions for the region.

Al-Mashat closed by expressing hope that the Riyadh summit would mark a shift from passive appeals to active measures in support of Palestinian rights, pressing leaders to take a decisive stance against Israeli actions in Palestine and Lebanon.

Muslim and Arab leaders at an extraordinary summit in Riyadh demanded that Israel immediately stop its deadly hostilities in the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

More than 50 leaders of Arab and Islamic countries are in Riyadh to take part in the summit.

The summit comes one year after a similar gathering of the OIC and Arab League, during which leaders condemned Israeli actions in Gaza as “barbaric.”