Muslim Nations Blast UN Inertia Amid ‘Barbarism’

Date: 16 May 2021 - 21:47

News ID: ۹۰۲۸۲

DUBAI (Dispatches) -- The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on Sunday for an immediate halt to the occupying regime of Israel’s barbaric attacks on Gaza and "systematic crimes” against the Palestinians.
The OIC statement came after a virtual meeting in which Saudi Arabia condemned the violation of the sanctity of Muslim holy sites and evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem Al-Quds
The 57-member body hit out at the United Nations Security Council of inertia. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei issued a separate statement on Sunday, tweeted by Malaysia’s premier, calling for an emergency UN General Assembly meeting.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates called for a ceasefire. The UAE and Bahrain had along with other Arab states last year broken a longstanding taboo in the region by establishing formal ties with the occupying regime of Israel, with tacit approval from Persian Gulf power Riyadh.
"De-escalation and the highest degree of restraint are important to avoid dragging the region to new levels of instability,” said UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashimy in remarks mostly typical of the Western supporters of the Zionist regime.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud opened the OIC meeting by urging the global community to end the escalation.
"The massacre of Palestinian children today follows the purported normalization,” Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said. "This criminal and genocidal regime has once again proven that friendly gestures only aggravate its atrocities.”
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation statement called on the Zionist regime to respect Muslims’ access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, as well as stop settlers from forcibly evicting Palestinian families from their homes.
"The plight of the Palestinian people is the bleeding wound of the Islamic world today,” Afghan Foreign Minister Muhammad Haneef Atmar said.
But the videoconference meeting saw some delegates instead turn their fire toward countries like Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, Muslim nations which reached normalization deals last year to recognize the occupying regime. While Egypt and Jordan earlier reached peace deals, supporters of the Palestinians criticized the new countries for recognizing Israel before the formation of an independent Palestinian state.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu joined Zarif in criticizing the normalization, though Israel maintains diplomatic ties with Ankara.
"There are a few who have lost their moral compass and voiced support for Israel,” he said. "If there are half-hearted statements within our own family, how could we criticize others? Who will take our words seriously?”
Zarif also hit out at the occupying regime of Israel for "genocide and crimes against humanity.”
"Make no mistake: Israel only understand the language of resistance and the people of Palestine are fully entitled to their right to defend themselves,” Zarif said.
Hamas, which administers Gaza, didn’t take part in the meeting, which came before consultations at the United Nations over the crisis.
In Qatar, home to the Al-Jazeera satellite network, hundreds turned out late Saturday night to listen to a speech by Hamas’ top leader Ismail Haniyeh. Kuwait’s parliament speaker reportedly spoke with Haniyeh on Saturday, as did Qatar’s foreign minister.
Meanwhile, in Bahrain and the UAE, regime-linked media hasn’t been covering the current flare-up of Israeli violence like other networks in the region.
There are murmurs of dissent though. In Bahrain, civil society groups signed a letter urging the kingdom to expel the Zionist ambassador. In the UAE, where political parties and protests are illegal, people have expressed their anger.