The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) started its 41st session in Jeddah on Wednesday under the title, ‘Exploring Areas of Islamic Cooperation.' Prince Saud Al-Faisal (2nd right), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Current Session; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (right); Foreign Minister of Guinea and President of the 40th session of the Council of OIC Foreign Ministers Lounceny Fall (2nd left); and OIC Secretary General Iyad Madani attending the session. — SPA Saudi Gazette report
JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that Iraq faced the threat of full-scale civil war with grave consequences for the wider region and warned against outside powers intervening in the conflict. The grave crisis in Iraq “carries warning signs of a civil war with unpredictable consequences for the region,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said at the opening of a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers here. He urged nations racked by violence to meet the “legitimate demands of the people and to achieve national reconciliation (without) foreign interference or outside agendas.” Prince Saud reiterated that “sectarian policies of exclusion” of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority were responsible for the violence. This paved the way for countries with “bad intentions” toward Iraq “to go ahead with plots threatening its security, stability, national unity and sense of Arab identity,” Prince Saud said. He said the three-year civil war in Syria had “helped to deepen the internal disturbance in Iraq.” The conflict, which has killed more than 160,000 people, had “taken a turn to the worse” following the breakdown of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva in February, the Saudi foreign minister said. Their failure had led to an “escalation in the violence and genocide carried out by the Syrian regime against its own people” and “diminished chances for a political solution,” he said, calling for Syrians to be provided with the means “to defend themselves” and warned that the conflict was “prone to further deterioration” as long as the international community failed to take “a decisive step.” The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) started on Wednesday its 41st session under the title of ‘Exploring Areas of Islamic Cooperation” in the presence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Iraq is being represented at the meeting of the 57-nation OIC by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the Muslim world is facing grave challenges ranging from political and social turmoil to extremism and intolerance. These challenges not only threaten international peace and security but are also impacting on our social, cultural and economic and political life. Unless we address these challenges collectively, we will not be able to move towards prosperity and stability, he added. He said that these challenges emanated, not only from foreign occupation, suppression of people's right to self-determination and unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of the Muslim countries but also unfortunately, from internal turmoil within the Muslim world.
