THREE IMPORTANT SUMMITS KICK OFF IN MECCA 

Holy city of Mecca welcome thurday Arab and Muslim leaders for three summits, as Saudi Arabia seeks to close ranks against Iran, after the recent attacks on oil targets in the Gulf.

Flags and giant welcome panels adorn the streets of this religious city in the western Saudi kingdom where Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summits and the Cooperation Organization are scheduled to meet on Thursday evening. Islamic (OIC) Friday night.

It will be nighttime gatherings due to Ramadan fasting during the day, as hundreds of thousands of worshipers are in Mecca to pray. Authorities said they blocked six avenues.

A representative of Tehran, Reza Najafi, Director General of International Peace and Security Issues at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attended the OIC Preparatory Meeting, of which Iran is a member. On the other hand, the head of the Iranian diplomacy Javad Zarif was not present.

Assaf said that attacks on oil targets should be treated with "firmness and determination", while a psychological warfare continues between Tehran and Washington in a context of US military reinforcement against Iran.

Two Saudi oilmen, a Norwegian and an Emirati were damaged on May 12 off the Gulf of Fujairah port. 

Regional tensions have been exacerbated since the administration of Donald Trump in April inscribed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on its blacklist of "terrorist organizations" and strengthened in May the economic sanctions against Tehran after leaving, there a year, the international agreement on Iran's nuclear power.

Significantly, Qatar, has sent his Prime Minister, Sheikh Abdallah bin Nasser Al-Thani, to Saudi Arabia.

The United States, allied with both Riyadh and Doha, welcomed the announcement. Washington has been trying for two years to mediate this crisis, which is undermining its strategy of isolating Iran.