ISTANBUL: Muslims nations must stand together to help the Palestinians suffering under Israeli occupation, fight terrorism and resolve conflicts across the region, Iyad Madani, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said here Thursday.
In a speech at the 13th session of the Islamic Summit, Madani also highlighted urgent interventions needed to solve the crises in Syria, Yemen, Libya and several other countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Speaking to an audience including Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he thanked for their support, he said the Muslim world expects the OIC leaders to produce a new 10-year program of action to meet their aspirations.
On Palestine, he said that urgent action was needed because there was a “lack of political will internationally to effectively move forward the peace process.” There were no serious attempts being made to “stop the ongoing aggressive racist acts and settlement expansions” by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
On terrorism, he said that over the past three months, there had been 174 terrorist acts in OIC member states, claiming nearly 3,000 lives, and injuring 4,000. “Other terrorist acts took place outside the OIC region, which were attributed to or claimed by the so-called Islamists, resulting in the deaths of 122 and injury to 520.”
“Therefore, the organization had to place combating terrorism at the forefront of its concerns, in line with the articles of the OIC Charter, with regard to terrorism, extremism, promotion of moderation, and all related legal instruments,” he said.
He said the OIC has also been calling for “a political solution to the Syrian crisis pursuant to the Communiqué of the Geneva I Conference (2012) and for the commitment by all parties in Syria to implement the provisions of the Security Council’s Resolution 2254 dated Dec. 18, 2015, and Resolution 2268 dated Feb. 26, 2016.”
Madani said there should be further efforts to tackle the crises in Libya, Iraq and Yemen. “In Iraq, we are working in coordination with the Iraqi government to hold the Makkah 2 Conference, in order to achieve national reconciliation among all constituents of the Iraqi people.”
“In Yemen, we continue to support the efforts of the legitimate government and the coalition forces to bring about peace as well as political and economic stability.”
OIC chief: Muslims expect a 10-year action plan
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