Sa'udi Arabia - International cooperation

Sa'udi Arabia is a charter member of the UN, having joined on 24 October 1945, and participates in ESCWA and all the nonregional specialized agencies. It is a founding member of the Arab League and of OPEC (as well as OAPEC), belongs to G-77 and GCC, and has permanent observer status with the OAS. It is also signatory to the Law of the Sea and has applied for membership in the WTO. Although supporting the Palestinian cause and the Arab League's boycott of Israel, the Sa'udi government in 1981 proposed that the Arab nations show willingness to extend diplomatic recognition to Israel in return for its withdrawal from lands occupied in the 1967 war (including the West Bank and East Jerusalem). Relations with Iran have long been tense and have worsened since that nation's Islamic revolution in 1979. In 1987, Iranian pilgrims rioted in Mecca in an attempt to destabilize the royal family. Although Sa'udi Arabia was not a combatant in the Iran-Iraq war, it actively supported Iraq against Iran.