Afghan Voice Agency (AVA)-Monitoring: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met on the sidelines of a joint meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League, held in Riyadh on Saturday.

Emphasizing the need for the unity of Islamic countries, Raisi stated, "The Islamic Republic of Iran sees no obstacle to the development of relations with the friendly country of Egypt."

He described the holding of a recent peace meeting in Cairo as a positive initiative although Western countries prevented it from reaching a conclusion, his website reported. "The Cairo peace meeting could have been a turning point in ending the Zionist crimes in the massacre of defenseless and innocent women and children in Gaza, but the Western countries supporting the Zionist regime did not allow the Security Council and other international organizations to take effective action to stop these crimes, and also prevented the meeting from being fruitful."

Stating that the general expectation is that the Rafah border crossing will be opened so that international aid can flow to Gaza, Raisi added, "It is clear to everyone that the United States and the Zionist regime are preventing the opening of the Rafah crossing to provide aid to the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza. But finally these obstacles must be overcome."

For his part, El-Sisi stated that Egypt’s definite political will is to establish real relations with Iran.

"We have assigned the related ministers to pursue deep relations between the two countries," he noted.

The president of Egypt stated, "Regarding Palestine, Egypt is a country that has suffered more than others from the consequences of this issue."

More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, when Hamas fighters launched a surprise operation against Israel outside Gaza./Tasnim news