President to join special OIC summit on Jerusalem issue

Desk Report: President M Abdul Hamid will join Organization of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) special summit convened on December 13 over the unilateral US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital sparking protests across the Muslim world.

"The President will join special OIC summit in Istanbul," a Bangabhaban spokesman told BSS.

President's Press Secretary M Joynal Abedin said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who currently chairs the grouping of the Muslim countries, invited President Hamid who he accepted immediately.

Abedin said the president would leave tomorrow evening for Istanbul, which is hosting the OIC's 6thsuch extraordinary summit, while Bangladesh earlier rejected the US President Donald Trump's declaration last week recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

A Turkish Airlines flight will carry the Bangladesh president and reach Istanbul on early Tuesday while he is set to return home next day.

Officials familiar with the process said President Hamid would take part in the summit at Istanbul Congress and Exhibition Centre (ICEC) at 11 am on Wednesday to "highlight Bangladesh's position on the issue".

The Bangabhaban announcement came shortly after Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali briefed newsmen about the background of the emergency OIC summit at the foreign ministry.

He said the United States government recognized Jerusalem as the "so called capital of Israel" and launched a process to transfer its embassy there from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, being occupied by Israeli forces since 1967. .

"This announcement suddenly exposed the Palestine-Israel Peace Process to a great threat," sparking tensions in the region," Ali said adding that the OIC summit was expected to decide the Muslim countries course of action in view of the situation.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier called the US decision "unacceptable" fearing it to escalate repercussions and said "there is a UN resolution on this and no-one will accept the announcement disregarding it".

The OIC, meanwhile, issued a statement saying it convened an extraordinary Summit to discuss the "repercussions of the recognition by the United States of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the Israeli capital.

"The Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of (OIC nations) will hold an extraordinary meeting on the same morning to discuss the move in a unified and coordinated manner in the face of these developments affecting the occupied city of Al-Quds and its historical, legal and political status," it read.

Arab foreign ministers on Saturday held a meeting in Cairo under the banner of Arab League which warned that the US move would increase violence throughout the region, urging the United States to abandon its decision.

Arab League also called President Trump's Wednesday announcement a "dangerous violation of international law" and have no legal impact and was "void".

BSS



risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 10, 2017/Nasim