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Islamic Leaders Arriving in Qatar for OIC Summit
Leaders of Islamic countries began to converge here Saturday for Sunday's Islamic summit which is set to mainly dedicate itself to the on-going violent Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Indonesian President Abdulrahman Wahid, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, Guinean President Lansana Conte and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh are among the first group of top dignitaries who have arrived in the morning.
Saudi Crown and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ibn Abul-Aziz, whose kingdom had earlier threatened to boycott of the Doha meeting, also arrived in the afternoon, leading a large Saudi delegation.
Riyadh withdrew its boycott threat on Friday following Qatar's decision on Thursday to close Israel's commercial office in Doha. Qatar's previous rejection to cease trade ties with Israel almost aborted the scheduled summit.
The OIC leaders have been recommended by their foreign ministers to contribute their first day of the summit to discussing resolutions in support of the Palestinian people.
The three-day ninth summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will open on Sunday.
OIC foreign ministers concluded a two-day meeting Friday preparing the draft agenda for their chiefs.
The ministers, in a draft statement issued at the end of the meeting, called on all Islamic nations which have relations with Israel to sever the links and stop any normalizing of relations with Jewish state for Israel's "criminal practices" against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The draft will be submitted to the summit for final approval.
Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries which have peace treaties with Israel, have approved the draft resolution, according to Palestinian Minister of International Cooperation Nabil Shaath.
Other political issues listed in the draft statement submitted to the summit include the situations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kashmir, the Gulf region and some African Muslim countries.
The leaders will also review the economic performance and explore ways to enhance economic relations among the 56 OIC member states.
The summit deliberations will also touch upon the topics of establishing nuclear free zones in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, according to the draft statement.
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