Saudi Arabia sends emergency summit invites through Arab League

Meeting called in response to recent attacks on kingdom's oil tankers and oil facilities

Saudi Arabia's King Salman attends a summit between Arab league and European Union member states, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, February 24, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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Saudi Arabia on Monday began distributing invitations through the Arab League to regional states to attend two emergency summits to discuss the implication of recent attacks against the kingdom.

The Cairo-based League of Arab States said that its secretariat had “circulated the invitation issued by [King Salman] to Arab leaders to convene an emergency Arab summit in Mecca”.

Saudi King Salman extended an invite Gulf leaders and Arab League members to the meeting scheduled for May 30 to discuss the recent "aggression and their consequences", and to a second meeting at the 14th session of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), the kingdom's official SPA news agency reported.

Kuwait, Yemen and Lebanon welcomed King Salman’s move to hold the emergency summit.

The three countries expressed support and solidarity with the kingdom in maintaining the security and stability of the region and promoting common Arab interests, SPA said.

Qatar said it had not received an invitation but the Arab League said it had circulated invitations to all member states.

Two Saudi vessels were sabotaged along with two other oil tankers off the UAE coast on May 12. The attack was followed two days later by drone attacks on oil installations west of the Saudi capital that  Riyadh said were carried out by the Iran-backed rebels in neighbouring Yemen.