Saudi rejects call for oil embargo over Israel

By Haitham Haddadin and Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Middle East oil producing nations will reject Iran's call for Muslim countries to halt crude supplies to Israel's backers over the fighting in Gaza, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"The oil producers who need their income ... are not going to do that," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told reporters at a news conference.

"The use of oil, especially at this time, is an idea that is at least past its worth," he said. "The important thing, oil is not a weapon. You can't reverse a conflict by using oil."

An Iranian military commander called on Islamic countries to cut oil exports to Israel's supporters in response to the Jewish state's offensive in Gaza, Tehran's official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

IRNA said the commander described oil as a commodity that could put pressure on Israel's European and American backers in the "unequal war" faced by Palestinians in the coastal strip.

Iran, which often launches verbal diatribes against the United States and Israel, is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and a leading member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The Saudi foreign minister -- whose country is OPEC's top producer and the world's largest petroleum exporter -- said the oil producers would be shooting themselves in the foot by heeding Tehran's call to cut supplies to Israel's backers, a move which he said would not help end any such conflict.

"How can you do that? You stop producing oil in order to put pressure on people and you suffer as much as anybody else suffers," Prince Saud noted.