Palestine question/Jerusalem – Final communiqué of OIC FMs – Letter from Burkina Faso (excerpts)

Letter dated 24 August 1999 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i.

of the Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the United     

Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to transmit herewith the text of the final communiqué adopted at the twenty-sixth session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (see annex),* held in Ouagadougou from 15 to 18 Rabi'ul Awal 1420H (28 June to 1 July 1999).

I should be grateful is you would have the text of the present letter and its annex circulated as a document of the fifty-third session of the General Assembly and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Hilaire SOULAMA

Chargé d'affaires a.i.

_______________

     * The annex is being issued in the languages of submission only.

Annex

[Original:  Arabic, English and French]

FINAL COMMUNIQUE

OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE OF

FOREIGN MINISTERS

SESSION OF PEACE AND PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT)

HELD AT OUAGADOUGOU

15 TO 18 RABI'UL AWAL 1420H

(28 JUNE TO 1 JULY 1999)

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POLITICAL AFFAIRS

The question of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

26. The Conference stressed that the question of Palestine and Al-Quds Al-Sharif is the paramount Islamic cause. It expressed its full solidarity with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Conference called for further support to the National Palestinian Authority to enable it to build its national institutions. It hailed the steadfastness, and struggle of the Palestinian people for regaining their inalienable national rights, including the right to return to their homeland, the right to self-determination and to establish their own independent sovereign state on national soil, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. The Conference called on Member States to make efforts within the international community to bring Israel to put an end to occupation, and withdraw its troops from all Arab and Palestinian territories to the front line of 4 June 1967, and first and foremost from Al-Quds Al-Sharif in order to enable the Palestinian people to achieve their inalienable national rights.

27. The Conference emphasized that Al-Quds Al-Sharif forms an integral part of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and whatever applies to the rest of the occupied territories also applies to it, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly. The Conference called On the international community to take immediate action to put an end to Israeli colonization, and all the inhuman and illegal measures and practices of the Israeli occupation authorities in the city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif aimed at Judaising it, namely confiscating land and property, demolishing houses and emptying the city of is Palestinian inhabitants, altering is demographic and geographical set up, obliterating cultural, civilizational, and historical monuments and desecrating Holy Islamic and Christian sites. The Conference called for exerting further joint efforts to restore the City of Al-Quds Al-Sharif to Palestinian sovereignty as capital of the State of Palestine, to ensure that international peace and security prevail in the region.

28. The Conference called on the international community to avoid any dealings with the Israeli occupation authorities that might in any way be interpreted as an implicit recognition of the "de facto" situation imposed by Israel when it declared the City of Al-Quds its capital. The Conference emphasized that all legal, administrative and colonization measures aimed at modifying the legal status of the Holy City are null and void and contravene international treaties, conventions and norms, are contrary to the agreements signed by the Palestinian and Israeli sides, and must therefore be ended and their consequences canceled. It invited all Member States to attend the forthcoming conference of the High Contracting Parties on the steps to be taken in order to enforce the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Palestinian territory including the City of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and which is due to be held in Geneva on the 15th of July, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the Tenth Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly in order to compel Israel to implement the Convention on Palestinian soil, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif.

29. The Conference affirmed its full support of the peace process in the Middle East and its commitment to one principles and parameters of the peace process.  It called on Israel to respect and implement its commitments, pledges and agreements concluded through that process, in accordance with the principles upon which the Madrid Conference was based pursuant to UN resolutions, in particular UN Security Council resolutions 242, 338 and 4?5, and the land-for-peace formula, all of which provide for Israel's withdrawal from all occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including the City of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the occupied Syrian Golan to the front line of 4 June 1967, the occupied Southern Lebanon and Western Bekaa, and for the realization of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.

30. The Conference underlined that Israel's violation of the principles and underpinnings of the peace process, reneging on the commitments, pledges and agreements concluded within this process, and procrastination and evasion at implementation level, have seriously undermined the peace process. The Conference held the Israeli Government wholly responsible for that state of affairs.

31. The Conference called on the Islamic States which had taken steps toward establishing relations with Israel within the framework of the peace process, to reconsider such relations by closing missions and offices until such time as Israel complete its withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed, including their right to establish their independent state on their national territory, Palestine, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

32. The Conference urged the international community, particularly the cosponsors of the peace process, to exert pressure on Israel to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy and to end its settlement policy. The Conference requested the UN Security Council to revive the International Committee for supervising and monitoring the ban on settlements in the City of Al-Quds and the other occupied Palestinian and Arab territories. It also urged the international community and the States which provide economic and financial assistance, to stop such assistance which Israel uses to carry out its colonization and settlement schemes in the occupied Arab territories, in occupied Palestine and the occupied Syrian Golan. The Conference called on the international community to refuse to consider Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories as Israeli places of origin, thus allowing Israel to export its products from there, and to take action to stop such Israeli exports.

33. The Conference called for action by the United Nations and other international organization and forums to force Israel to release the detainees, return the deportees, put an end to collective punishments, confiscation of land and property, demolition of houses, and to refrain from any act likely to endanger life and the environment in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif.

34. The Conference requested the international community and the UN Security Council to force Israel to comply with UN resolutions, particularly UN Security Council resolution 487 (1981), to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and implement the resolutions of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

35. The Conference commended the efforts made by the Al-Quds Committee under the Chairmanship of His Majesty Hassan II, King of Morocco, and expressed satisfaction at the fact that the "Bait-Mal Al-Quds" Agency had started its activities. The Conference called on Member States, Islamic financing institutions, banks, funds, chambers of commerce and industry, companies, individuals and businessmen to extend generous support to "Bait-Mal Al-Quds" and to organize fund-raising campaigns on the popular level in favor of the Agency to enable it to implement the projects agreed upon in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people in the Holy City.

36. The Conference lauded the resistance of the Syrian Arab citizens of the Golan against occupation and strongly condemned Israel for not complying with UN Security Council resolution 497 (1981). It affirmed that Israel's decision to impose its laws, sovereignty and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan was illegal, null and void, and with no legal effect whatsoever. The Conference condemned Israel for continuing to alter the legal and demographic status of the occupied Syrian Golan and its institutional structure. It reaffirmed the applicability of the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War to the occupied Syrian Golan and called for Israel's total withdrawal from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the lines of 4 June 1967.

37. The Conference strongly condemned Israel for its continuing occupation of parts of Southern Lebanon and Western Bekaa, and urged the international community to ensure the implementation of UN Security Council 42S (1978) stipulating Israel's immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all occupied Lebanese territory to the internationally recognized borders. It called on the international community to take all measures to compel Israel to set free immediately all the prisoners, the Lebanese nationals who have been kidnapped, as well as those detained in Israeli prisons and in the camps controlled by the forces allied to Israel, and to endeavor to put an end to Israel's aggression and inhuman practices against the defenseless inhabitants in the Lebanese territory. It reiterated its support for the efforts of the Republic of Lebanon to establish its sovereignty over its entire territory including the area occupied by Israel in Southern Lebanon and Western Bekaa.

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