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OIC Statement Boycotts Israel, Supports Arafat, Calls for Iraq Integrity
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| Sudanese
men walk in front of a board advertising the 29th Islamic
Conference of Foreign Ministers in
Khartoum
.
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KHARTOUM,
June 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – In its final statement
at the end of a three-day meeting of foreign ministers in the Sudanese
capital, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) decided
Thursday, June 27, 2002, to reactivate an economic boycott of Israel,
voice support for Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian
people, call for the respect of Iraq's "independence", and
seek common strategy for dialogue with the West.
The
boycott measure was taken in support of the Palestinians and in
protest against
Israel
's harline policy, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
The
OIC called on its 57 members to "respect the Islamic boycott
against Israel and to consider its [the organization’s] legislation
and rules governing the boycott as part of their national
legislation."
The
statement also called on each member state to set up a special office
to oversee the boycott and to coordinate with the Syria-based pan-Arab
Office of the Boycott of Israel (OBI).
Sudanese
Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail told a press conference that the OIC
had "a [boycott] committee, but it was frozen and the decision
has been taken to reactivate it."
The
Arab League decided last year to reactivate the OBI and its
representation in member states, but
Egypt
and
Jordan
did not implement the measure because of their peace treaties with
Israel
.
The
OIC final statement has also voiced support for "the independence
of
Iraq
and its territorial integrity".
The
group stressed "the need to respect the independence of
Iraq
, its sovereignty and territorial integrity".
It
also called on
Iraq
to "respect the security of
Kuwait
and its territorial integrity, and to take appropriate measure
demonstrating peaceful intentions" towards its smaller southern
neighbor.
The
Washington Post
reported earlier this month that U.S. President George W. Bush had
directed the Central Intelligence Agency to undertake a comprehensive,
covert program to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, including
the authority to use lethal force.
Concerning
the Bush Mideast plan, the OIC ignored Bush's call for the ouster of
Palestinian Arafat and voiced its support to the Palestinian
President.
Ismail
was commenting on why foreign ministers of the 57-member OIC issued no
formal statement on Bush's Middle East strategy speech that called on
the Palestinians to vote out Arafat.
"We
accept the positive aspect, reject the negative aspect and wait for
the blurred aspect to become clear," he told a press conference.
"The
negative aspect was the targeting of the Palestinian leadership,"
he said. "This is why we stressed our support to the Palestinian
leadership" in the final statement issued by the three-day
meeting.
"There
was agreement that we should not ... consider it [the Bush speech] as
a new initiative," said Ismail. "We already have a peace
initiative," he said, referring to an Arab League-endorsed Saudi
plan offering normal ties with Israel if it pulls out of the Arab
lands it occupied in 1967.
In
its final statement, the OIC ministerial meeting "renewed the
Islamic nation's collective support to the Palestinian people's
struggle to recover their rights ... under the leadership of President
Yasser Arafat."
Meanwhile, a senior Arab official at the group's ministerial meeting
said Thursday that the Organization of the Islamic Conference is
trying to set up a "common strategy for dialogue" with the
West.
"We
absolutely need to design a common strategy so that we speak in a
single voice with the West and not disparately," the official
said.
The
September 11 terror attacks on the United States "have shown how
obsolete were the methods used by the Muslim world to present and
defend its ideas," he said, asking not to be identified.
It
is not enough "to say that Islam is a religion of
tolerance," he said, stressing the need for Muslim states to
agree on a "common definition of terrorism."
The
conference on Wednesday saw heated debate behind closed doors on the
issue of terrorism, according to delegates.
The
Khartoum
meeting focused mainly on how to defend the image of Islam, tarnished
by the September 11 attacks, and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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