OIC holds emergency meet on Gaza
February 4, 2008 - 0:0
JEDDAH – On Sunday, foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) opened an emergency meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip followed by Israel’s cutoff of food, medicine, fuel, and electricity to the territory. The meeting was held upon Iran’s call.
OIC Secretary General Ikmaleddine Ihsan Uglo stressed the significance of the extraordinary session of the OIC Foreign Ministers Expanded Executive Committee for supporting the Palestinian people.According to Kuwait News Agency, Uglo condemned the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, including the closure of border crossings.
What is going on in Gaza is the last episode of a long series of Israeli illegal aggressions and practices against the Palestinians in breach of international law, the OIC chief diplomat noted.
Addressing the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the Islamic countries to abide by their commitment in “boycotting” the Zionist regime and send “humanitarian aid” to the Palestinians stranded in the Gaza Strip.
Human rights activists have called the Gaza Strip the largest open prison on the earth.
Mottaki condemned Israel’s crimes against the Gaza residents, saying, “These days a real slaughter is underway in the 1.5-million Gaza prison and an oppressed nation is being subjected to massacre by repeated bombardments, helicopter and tank attacks and a simultaneous cutoff of water, electricity and foodstuff.”
Iran’s foreign minister said the statements by the U.S. president in Annapolis on a “Jewish state” indicated that a secret agreement has been put in force to drive out Muslims and Christians from Palestine thus after the Annapolis conference more than 150 Palestinian women and men have been martyred at the hands of the Zionist army.
“The Islamic countries should abide by their commitment in boycotting the Zionist regime and the OIC member countries should break the Gaza blockade and move on sending humanitarian aid.”
He also asked the OIC members to act in coordinated move to mobilize the international community to take a serious action against the Zionists’ crimes in Palestine.
The United Nations should take a look at the events in the Gaza Strip with due care and fulfill its duty of preventing the ongoing atrocities against this nation.
According to media reports, over 96 Gazans lost their lives since January 16 when Israeli escalated its violent attacks on the defenseless people living in Gaza.
Israeli is pursuing “scorched earth policy” with the aim of wiping out the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, a Jeddah-based OIC diplomat told IRNA