BD to attend urgent OIC meeting

Staff Reporter :

Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman left for Saudi Arabia Wednesday on his maiden foreign tour since assuming office to attend an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers in Jeddah on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The matter is confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.

Prime Minister’s Adviser Humayun Kabir is accompanying the Foreign Minister during the visit, according to official sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will convene an emergency meeting of its Open-ended Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers on Thursday at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah.

The session is set to deliberate on recent decisions by Israeli authorities concerning settlement expansion, annexation plans and moves described as attempts to impose Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.

According to the OIC, the emergency meeting aims to coordinate the positions of member states and consider possible collective responses to what it termed invalid measures.

These include the latest decision to initiate procedures to designate lands in the occupied West Bank as “state property” for settlement purposes.

The move has been widely viewed within the OIC as part of broader efforts to alter the legal, political and demographic character of the occupied Palestinian territory, potentially undermining the prospects of a two-state solution.

Diplomatic sources said Bangladesh is expected to reaffirm its longstanding support for the rights of the Palestinian people and a peaceful resolution to the conflict in line with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.