On Thursday, Riyadh convened emergency Gulf and Arab League summits to discuss the alleged Iran threat ahead of the Islamic summit on Friday. The meetings followed the attacks on oil tankers off the UAE coast earlier in May.
"Iran has been supporting terrorism for four decades and has been threatening security and stability, seeking to expand its influence and hegemony and rejecting international agreements. The Iranian regime interferes in the regional internal affairs and threatens international ship traffic. We are demanding the international community to take responsibility in order to make Iran stop its support for terrorism and bar it from threatening international navigation," the king said live on Al Arabiya.
On May 12, four oil tankers — including two Saudi vessels and a UAE-flagged ship — were targeted in an attack off of the UAE’s exclusive economic zone.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton has claimed that Iran was most certainly behind the attack, while Tehran has denied the allegations.
READ MORE: Tehran Slams US for ‘Raising a Lie’ About Iran’s Push for Atom Bomb
Tensions in the region escalated in May 2018, when the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed its sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, particularly targeting its oil sector. Saudi Arabia, a long-time US ally in the region and Iran's adversary, has been supporting Washington in its actions against Tehran.