Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on oil-producing Islamic states to launch a one-month oil embargo against Western countries to pressure them to stop supporting Israel. 

In his Friday prayer sermon, the Ayatollah said Arab and Islamic governments can use oil as a weapon. And, he asked them to cut off the supply "for a symbolic period of one month" to all countries that support, what he called, the savage regime of Israel. 

Non-Arab Iran is the second largest producer of crude oil within OPEC - the oil exporting nations' cartel. Earlier this week, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said his government would "consider" using oil as a weapon - adding that an oil embargo would be highly effective if all Muslim countries take the decision collectively. 

However, leading oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have rejected the idea - first raised by Iraq on Monday. Kuwait says an oil embargo would harm Arab states and the Palestinians more than the United States and other Western countries. The 11-member OPEC cartel also dismissed the Iraqi proposal. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters. 

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