TEHRAN, Jan 15: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Arab and Islamic nations on Thursday to cut trade relations with Israel over its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Today is the day that the Arab League must fulfil its duty. If not today, then when?” he asked.

Speaking at a press conference, broadcast live on state television, Mr Ahmadinejad said: “Cutting trade relations with the Zionists by the regional, Islamic and Arab countries is the least expectation ... from these states.”

“Businessmen and the rich must cut economic relations with this regime,” he added. The Iranian government has endorsed a bill that will sanction foreign companies doing business with Israel but parliament has yet to approve it.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for Israel to be ‘wiped off the map’, earlier on Thursday accused some Arab and Islamic states of complicity in ‘genocide’ being carried out by the Jewish state against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Unfortunately, some states in the Arab and Islamic region tolerate or support this rare genocide with silence or a smile of satisfaction,” Mr Ahmadinejad said in a letter to Saudi King Abdullah.

Iran is a staunch supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, and does not recognise Israel.

The Iranian president addressed his letter to the Saudi king, saying: “...it is expected from you to break the silence over this obvious atrocity and killing of your own children.”

Israel’s 20-day-old Gaza offensive has killed around 1,000 Palestinians, including at least 355 children, and wounded about 5,000 other people, according to Gaza medics.

The letter, carried on Ahmadinejad’s website, said he hoped that the Saudi king’s stance “will fully disappoint corrupt powers that hope to create division in the Islamic front”. He was apparently referring to a rift between the so-called ‘moderate’ Arab countries, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the more pro-Hamas states, led by Syria and Qatar, over how to respond to the Gaza assault.

Qatar has tried twice to organise an Arab summit on the Gaza conflict, an idea opposed by regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The letter to the Saudi king was released as Riyadh was set to host an emergency summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council on the situation in Gaza on Thursday.

Besides Saudi Arabia, the GCC also comprises the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.—AFP