Saudi King calls for urgent Arab summit amid rising tensions with Iranian regime

Saudi Arabia has called for two urgent meetings of its Arab allies later this month to discuss recent attacks on shipping and oil-production sites amid rising tensions with bitter regional rival Iran.

Saudi King Salman on May 18 called for leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to meet for the emergency summits in Mecca on May 30.

Saudi and other officials said the discussions would focus on an attack on four commercial vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and a series of armed drone attacks on oil-production sites near Riyadh.

Iran has denied it was involved in the attack on the vessels. Yemen-based Houthi rebels, who are supported by Tehran, have claimed responsibility for the drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

Leaders at the summits will "discuss these aggressions and their repercussions on the region," the official Saudi news agency SPA quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying.

The United Arab Emirates, a close Saudi ally, welcomed King Salman’s call to convene the Mecca summits and said the "critical circumstances" in the Middle East called for a united stand by Arab nations in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere.