Emergency Saudi Arabia summit to focus on defusing Iran tension

Qatar has yet to announce who it will send to the conference in Makkah

The holy city of Makkah, in Saudi Arabia, will host twin summits of the GCC and Arab League AFP 

Saudi Arabia is preparing to receive Arab leaders in Makkah for two summits addressing the recent tension with Iran.

Saudi King Salman called for two emergency summits to be held in the holy city – one for Arab League members and one for Arabian Gulf leaders – to discuss the recent “aggression and their consequences”.

This month, four tankers docked off Fujairah port in the UAE were attacked, with US National Security Adviser John Bolton saying on Wednesday the damage was caused by "naval mines almost certainly from Iran".

Mr Bolton arrived in Abu Dhabi late on Tuesday for talks.

A Saudi Arabian crude oil pipeline and two pumping stations were hit by Houthi drone strikes a day after the tanker attacks.

Riyadh claims the rebels, who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, were following Iranian orders but Tehran has denied involvement.

The GCC summit on Thursday will be the third major meeting of the bloc since Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar over its support for extremism and close ties to Iran.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim has accepted an invitation to attend Sunday’s summit.

It will be the first time he has crossed the border into the kingdom since the diplomatic crisis began in 2017.

The three countries closed their airspace to Qatar and cut all diplomatic ties.

Doha initially said it had not been invited to the summit.

Qatari diplomats have flown to Saudi Arabia on Qatari airlines, despite the airspace boycott, to attend other regional conferences held in the kingdom over the past two years.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said on Tuesday that his country was ready to talk with Gulf Arab countries to address the growing tension.

Mr Araqchi met Qatar's Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Doha, where the two sides “expressed their concern about escalations and problems in the region", an official Qatari statement said.

Qatar was the only country from the six-nation bloc to send its head of state to the GCC’s 2017 summit in Kuwait.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain sent government officials rather than their leaders in an apparent snub to Sheikh Tamim.

Washington has repeatedly called on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar to resolve their differences because of the Iranian threat.