A statement issued by OIC after the meeting said the organization “holds Israel, the illegal occupying power, fully responsible for this heinous attack”.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened in an extraordinary meeting of the 57-member bloc Wednesday in the coastal city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and blamed Israel for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
A statement issued by OIC after the meeting said the organization “holds Israel, the illegal occupying power, fully responsible for this heinous attack”, describing it as “a serious infringement” of Iran’s sovereignty.
Pakistan backs Iran at OIC meeting, demands oil-trade boycott of Israelhttps://t.co/cPJd5ci1ob pic.twitter.com/7sFtS4HNeR
— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) August 8, 2024
In his opening statement, OIC Secretary-General Hussein Ibrahim Taha described the assassination as “an attack on Iran’s sovereignty and national security” and a “blatant violation of the principles of international law and the provisions of the UN Charter.”
Taha also expressed his “strong condemnation of the war crimes and daily genocide committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.”
He described the persistence of the Israeli occupation in committing these crimes as a “flagrant disregard by Israel, the occupying power, for all prohibitions, norms, international laws, and resolutions.”
Iran's acting foreign minister told the OIC meeting that Tehran has no option but to avenge the Israeli assassination of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. pic.twitter.com/cwGHZFh5lK
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) August 8, 2024
OIC’s Chair, Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, warned that Haniyeh’s “heinous” assassination and the ongoing war in Gaza could lead to a regional conflict. “The aggression and violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the assassination of a political leader on its soil is an act that cannot be viewed in isolation,” Tangara reiterated.
Both Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of Haniyeh’s assassination last week in Tehran while Israel declined to comment. Iran vowed to retaliate against Israel’s crime amidst extensive efforts by the United States and other Western countries to diffuse tension.
Saudi Arabia, through its deputy foreign minister Waleed al-Khereiji, labeled the assassination as a “blatant violation” of Iran’s sovereignty. The Saudi Kingdom rejects “any violation of the sovereignty of states or interference in the internal affairs of any country,” Al-Khereiji said at the meeting held at the level of the OIC foreign ministers.
The US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed on Wednesday that several OIC members agree with Washington that further escalation would only worsen the ongoing crises in the region.
“We would hope that at that OIC meeting the same thing happens that we have been trying to effectuate throughout the last week, which is that all parties that have a relationship with Iran impress upon Iran – the same way that we’ve been impressing upon the government of Israel – that they shouldn’t take any steps to escalate the conflict,” Miller said.
Open-ended extraordinary meeting of the OIC Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers, to discuss the ongoing crimes by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and its infringing on the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran https://t.co/6Jm36RLiuI
— OIC (@OIC_OCI) August 7, 2024
“The message that we are sending to everyone is: Look, this is obviously a very delicate time for the region. Tensions are high. We are in the final stages – hopefully – of a ceasefire deal,” Miller added. The US State Department spokesperson stressed that regional escalation could jeopardize the prospects of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
OIC’s statement issued following the extraordinary meeting strongly condemned Israeli “war crimes, aggressions and genocide” in Gaza, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem and demanded an immediate end to the Israeli aggression and the policy of torture, starvation and collective punishment against the Palestinian people.
The statement also confirmed its “categorical rejection and responding by all possible means to any attempt at displacement, expulsion or forcible transfer of the Palestinian people from their land.” s
(AJE, Anadolu, PC)
