Ninth Islamic Summit Closes in DohaThe ninth Islamic summit closed Monday (November 13) in Doha with the approval of documents condemning Israeli " aggression" against Palestinians and pledging support for the Palestinian people.The summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) adopted the Doha Declaration and a 60-page Final Communique at its closing session Monday evening, one day earlier than schedule. The Doha Declaration, read out by OIC Secretary-General Azzeddine Laraki, denounced Israel for its "aggression" against the Palestinians, and affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital. The non-binding documents invited OIC members states to break ties with Israel and called on them to cut ties with countries that move their embassies to Jerusalem or recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who assumed the rotating OIC chairmanship at the summit, proposed to send an OIC ministerial team to the United Nations to press for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian bloody clashes raging in the territories for over one month. Addressing the closing session, the Qatari emir said that OIC foreign ministers would contact the UN Security Council and its five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- over the issue. He said Qatar had donated US$3 million to a fund- raising campaign for the pan-Islamic OIC while Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had contributed UU$10 and US$3 million respectively. The OIC, founded in 1970, has 56 members and a population of 1.2 billion around the world. The resolution on Iraq was the last to be finalized after intensive discussions through the whole Monday afternoon, which softened the wording by changing "Iraq's aggression against Kuwait," the rhetoric used by the OIC since the invasion, into "the situation between Iraq and Kuwait." It called on the UN Security Council to engage in " comprehensive dialogue with Iraq" in order to end the decade-old crippling sanctions against the country for its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Over 4,000 people, including heads of state and government or their representative from the OIC members and leaders from regional and international organizations, attended the summit which was originally due to conclude Tuesday. The next Islamic summit will be held in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in 2003. |
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