Muslim-Majority Nations Seek Unity on Mideast Crisis as Billions Face Fallout

Nearly 2 billion Muslims worldwide have a direct stake in what was decided Thursday in Jeddah, where foreign ministers from across the Islamic world gathered for an extraordinary session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers.

The meeting addressed the Palestinian cause at a moment when ordinary people across the region face overlapping political, security, economic, social and humanitarian crises. For citizens in conflict-affected areas, the stakes could not be more concrete: access to food and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the future of East Jerusalem, and the viability of an independent Palestinian state that would give millions of Palestinians a recognized homeland.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, opened with a direct warning. The Islamic world, he said, faces an urgent imperative to strengthen cooperation and solidarity. No single country, he argued, can address the interconnected challenges confronting member states and their populations, making collective action and unified positions essential to safeguarding the interests of states and peoples.

On Palestine, Riyadh delivered its strongest condemnation of the Israeli settlement expansion plan known as the E1 project. The kingdom warned that the initiative would not simply add housing units but would effectively isolate East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian territories, undermining the viability of an independent Palestinian state. Prince Faisal characterized E1 as part of a broader strategy to impose settlement realities and gradually annex Palestinian land, a trajectory the Saudi position framed as a direct threat to the two-state solution and the Palestinian people’s right to a just, comprehensive and lasting peace.

Saudi Arabia also condemned what it described as repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli officials and settlers operating under Israeli military protection. The kingdom rejected any attempt to divide the mosque temporally or spatially or to alter its Islamic character. Ensuring that humanitarian and food aid reaches Gaza without obstruction, Riyadh stressed, is a necessity, not a negotiating point.

Meanwhile, the meeting produced a significant institutional development. Delegates elected Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as the organization’s new secretary-general, succeeding Chad’s Hissein Brahim Taha, whose tenure concludes in November. Ould Cheikh Ahmed brings more than three decades of United Nations work and experience in crisis zones to the role.

In his inaugural address, Ould Cheikh Ahmed acknowledged the weight of the trust placed on him by nearly 2 billion Muslim men and women seeking an organization with stronger presence, greater influence and enhanced capacity to serve their causes. The OIC’s 57 member states span four continents, hold vast human, natural and economic resources and have predominantly young populations. He calculated their combined gross domestic product at nearly 30 trillion dollars, resources that confer both major responsibility and historic opportunity.

The challenge, he said, lies in making effective use of those assets amid shifting global power balances, accelerating technological change, the growing influence of artificial intelligence and the digital economy, and mounting pressure on the multilateral system. These are not abstract forces. They shape the daily conditions of citizens across member states, from access to economic opportunity to exposure to online hate speech.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed placed Palestine at the top of the organization’s priorities, declaring it would remain the central cause in its political, humanitarian and civilizational dimensions. He committed to defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them establishing an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital and protecting the sanctity of Al-Quds Al-Sharif. He also pledged to strengthen the organization’s efforts to combat Islamophobia and hate speech, promote dialogue and mutual respect, and build broader partnerships with the international community.

Outgoing Secretary-General Taha described the meeting as occurring at an extremely delicate and sensitive juncture. During his five-year tenure, he cited achievements in political, economic, cultural and scientific cooperation, and thanked Saudi Arabia for its support of joint Islamic action.

Prince Faisal, for his part, argued that the Islamic world possesses substantial demographic, political, economic and civilizational weight that could make it an effective participant in shaping international power balances. The organization’s strength, he said, depends fundamentally on solidarity among member states and their ability to convert shared principles and interests into effective collective action. He expressed confidence that Ould Cheikh Ahmed would advance the organization and enhance its role.

The OIC charter sets the secretary-general’s term at five years, renewable once, with selection based on equitable geographical distribution, rotation and equal opportunity among Arab, African and Asian groups. In February, the African Union formally endorsed Ould Cheikh Ahmed’s candidacy for the 2027-2032 term, listing Mauritania as part of North Africa. Whether the organization can translate its considerable collective resources into tangible improvements for the populations it represents remains the defining question of the incoming secretary-general’s tenure.