OIC Urged to Hold Emergency Meeting After New Zealand Attacks

Date: 16 March 2019 - 21:32

News ID: ۶۴۳۲۲

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has strongly condemned terrorist attack on Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, calling on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to hold an emergency session on the carnage.
In a phone conversation with Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, the rotating president of the OIC, Zarif called for appropriate reaction of Muslim states to this heinous crime.
The Iranian foreign minister pointed to the New Zealand terrorist attack as well as Zionist troop’s recent insult to a mosque in the occupied Palestine and proposed that the OIC immediately holds an emergency meeting at the level of leaders or foreign ministers.
At least one gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 40 during Friday prayers at two New Zealand mosques in the country's worst ever-mass shooting, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned as terrorism.
The Australian gunman behind the massacre, identified as Brenton Tarrant, broadcast live footage on Facebook of the attack on one mosque in the city of Christchurch, mirroring the carnage played out in video games, after publishing a "manifesto" in which he denounced immigrants, calling them "invaders".
The Australian suspect arrested after dozens of worshippers were gunned down in two mosques appeared unrepentant in court in New Zealand on Saturday, staring down media members with a smirk on his face.
Brenton Tarrant, 28, appeared in a Christchurch District Court and was charged with murder. He was remanded without a plea until his next appearance in the South Island city's High Court on April 5.
Handcuffed, shoeless, and wearing a white prison suit, Tarrant did not speak. His court-appointed lawyer made no application for bail or name suppression.
He flashed an upside-down "okay" signal, a symbol used by white power groups across the globe.
Two other suspects were taken into custody while police tried to determine what role, if any, they played in the cold-blooded attack that stunned New Zealand.
Calling it a well-planned terrorist attack, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the main suspect was a licensed gun owner who used five weapons during his rampage, including two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns.
New Zealand, with a population of five million, has relatively loose gun laws and an estimated 1.5 million firearms, or roughly one for every three people.
Muslims account for one percent of New Zealand's population, a 2013 census showed, most of whom were born overseas.
In his manifesto, Tarrant said he saw U.S. President Donald Trump as "symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Sadeq Amoli Larijani rapped the British media for not using the word "terrorist" to describe the barbaric shooting in New Zealand in their reports.
"A number of western media outlets, like the British government media, have avoided using the phrase 'terrorist attack' to report on the incident. While they declare a knife-stabbing incident as a terrorist attack, they have closed their eyes on the crime of the massacre of 49 innocent Muslims," Amoli Larijani said, addressing EC members in Tehran on Saturday.
He expressed the hope that the Muslim nations would pay more heed to this approach and adopt a new policy towards the West's double-standard behavior.
Meantime, Iran's Assembly of Experts in a statement condemned the terrorist attack in New Zealand, describing it as barbaric and an indication of extremist racism against Muslims in the West.
It called on the New Zealand government to seriously confront the culprits behind the attack to prevent similar incidents.