OIC annual coordination meeting – Press conference by OIC Secretary-General (excerpts)

PRESS CONFERENCE BY HEAD OF ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE

The food security crisis and Islamophobia were the two hot-button items on the agenda of the annual meetings of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), under way on the sidelines of the General Assembly session, the organization’s Secretary-General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said this morning at a Headquarters press conference.

He said that reports on how to handle the food crisis and how to deal with the misperception of Islam would be before the organization at its annual coordination meeting on Friday, 26 September.  An OIC committee meeting on Palestine was scheduled for Wednesday, 24 September, along with meetings of contact groups on Iraq, Sierra Leone, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as on Somalia. 

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On the Palestinian issue, he said the OIC had been active since December 2006 in bridging the gap between Hamas and the intifada, addressing the issue of factionalism so that the will of the Palestinian people was achieved through legal processes.  The Annapolis process must be restarted, regardless of the disappointment stemming from the unfulfilled promise of United States President George W. Bush to bring about peace through a two-State solution by year’s end.

Asked why the peace process in the Middle East had not succeeded so far, he said the process needed a commitment, particularly by the United States, to see the process through.  The Arab initiative was based on a lasting solution, a peaceful solution and full recognition of Israel.  But negotiations in the peace process reached a certain point and then the term ended of one of the three leaders involved, that of the United States, Israel or the Palestinian people.  That tripartite process must be seen through to completion, and the current United States Administration must ensure that its successor continued the process.

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For information media • not an official record