Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, has dispatched identical letters to several international actors about the ongoing Israeli violation of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque through incursion, closure of the Mosque's gates and barbaric attacks against innocent worshipers, leading to hundreds of them being injured and arrested. In the messages addressed to the Secretary of State of the United States, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, France and China, including the United Nations Secretary-General and the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Taha asserted that this dangerous escalation of Israel's aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an attack on the religious rights and sensibilities of the entire Islamic ummah (nation). He also described the escalation as a flagrant violation of the relevant international resolutions and instruments that may stoke religious war and violence in the region and beyond. The Secretary-General also called on all the international actors to move swiftly under these critical circumstances, to pressure Israel, the occupying power, to guarantee the rights of Muslims to pray freely in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to preserve the existing historical and legal status of the holy sites in Occupied Al-Quds. He reiterated the call on all actors to intensify international efforts to revive the political track that will end the Israeli occupation and bring about the establishment of the sovereign and independent State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with international law, relevant United Nations resolutions and the Arab peace initiative.
