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OIC meet in Iran hears calls for support for Palestinians, Iraqi sovereignty
Jordan Times, 5/29/03
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called on Islamic states Wednesday to show clear support for Palestinian resistance and Iraqi sovereignty in a speech to foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
The secretary general of the 57-member pan-Islamic body, Abdul Wahed Belkeziz, also urged delegates to stand by fellow OIC members that were under threat — an implicit reference to mounting US warnings directed against Iran and Syria.
“It is our duty to reiterate our steadfast support to the Palestinian resistance, which is an unmistakable example of a liberation movement against organised state terrorism,” said Khatami in a speech opening the three-day meeting.
“The oppressed people of Iraq need the resolute support of all Muslim and freedom-loving states,” the reformist cleric said.
“The Muslim people of Iraq and all Muslim countries now expect that a political system, chosen by the Iraqi people, should take control of the situation ... as soon as possible.”
Khatami condemned terrorism in the name of Islam, but also the “unilateralist” response to it, a clear criticism of the US method of battling Al Qaeda network.
All 57 OIC member states except Iraq are taking part in the plenary conference. An OIC source said no invitation was sent to Baghdad because there is no legitimate authority running Iraq's affairs.
In his opening speech, Belkeziz implicitly referred to US warnings to Iran, accused of harbouring Al Qaeda members, interfering in Iraq and developing nuclear weapons, and to Syria over its alleged sheltering of officials from the ousted Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and seeking weapons of mass destruction.
“We must proclaim our rejection of explicit and implicit threats being directed at some OIC member states,” said the former foreign minister of Morocco. “Our duty here is to support and defend these countries to prevent a repeat of the old colonial formulas.”
Belkeziz told ministers they were meeting during “a critical juncture as the Islamic world traverses its most severe crisis.”
“Regrettably, all outward indicators do not warrant optimism, given the ominous climate casting a cloud of gloom over most countries of the Mulsim world,” he said, admitting in his downbeat speech that Muslim states in the Jeddah-headquartered OIC “had utterly failed to act as one Islamic nation.”
On Iraq, he called on OIC members to “stand by our brothers to help them defend their rights and... make their own political choices.”
He also called for qualified OIC support for the so-called roadmap for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, compiled by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.
“We should closely monitor the `roadmap' drawn up by the quartet as a solution to the Palestinian issue, making sure that it is not distorted, altered or obstructed by preconditions to its implementation. Hence, it is imperative for us to work to ensure wide international acceptance for this plan.”
The fight against Osama Ben Laden's Al Qaeda also figured prominently as the talks opened.
In his speech, Khatami referred to the danger of the group, but also to the conduct of the United States in its war against terrorism.
“Our world has been buffeted from two sides by violent dogmatists and arrogant powers. On the one side terrorism and fanaticism have distorted the humane and freedom-seeking face of religion, and on the other the seeking of hegemony and unilateralism have made a mockery of such respected concepts of freedom and democracy,” Khatami said.
“It is incumbent on us, in the name of Islam, to keep a distance from these two frightening faces,” he added, asserting that “discrimination, hatred, violence and repression are alien to the spirit of and truth of Islam.”
The ministers will also discuss the situation in Afghanistan, and the difficulties facing Muslims around the world, especially in trouble spots like Kashmir and Chechnya.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople has been invited to attend the meeting as a “guest” of the conference, and there will also be special talks on the southern Philippines Muslim insurgency.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |