Iran calls on Arab League to focus on Israel's crimes not on Tehran

The Arab League states have a “lack of understanding” of regional developments and “what is going on in the region”, the spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Nasser Kanaani was responding to a statement released by the Arab League foreign ministers following their meeting earlier this week in which they criticised the Islamic Republic for interfering in the internal affairs of Arab states.

“The issuance of such statements reflects the lack of understanding, by the signatory countries, on the developments of regional events and the reality of what is going on in the region,” Kanaani said.

He advised that the Arab League states to “focus on the crimes of the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people, instead of repeating these accusations that lack any value,” noting that the Arab League’s statement “contradicts the attempts by some signatory countries to improve their relations with Iran.”

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The Council of the League of Arab States held its 158th session at the foreign ministers level on Tuesday at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League. They discussed issues of joint Arab action such as political, security, economic, legal and social.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan Bin Abdullah Al Saud chaired the meeting of the Arab Ministerial Quartet Committee on the crisis with Iran, which “discussed the course of the Arab relations with Iran and the ways to confront its interferences in the internal affairs of Arab states.”

Iraq has been hosting talks between Riyadh and Tehran since 2021 in an effort to end their diplomatic rift and reach an understanding on the conflict in Yemen and Iran’s nuclear file.

Iran and Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations in January 2016, following an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after Shia cleric Nimr Al-Nimr was executed by Saudi authorities.