KUALA
LUMPUR, October 3 (IslamOnline.net) - Malaysia’s Foreign Minister
Syed Hamid Albar Friday, October 3, confirmed that Iraq will be
attending the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Summit in
Putrajaya on Oct 11-18 as a member, not an observer.
"We're
not dropping Iraq from the OIC," he told reporters when asked
about Iraq's status at the summit, as reported by Bernama on Friday.
Iraq's
status in the OIC was questioned because the country is now under an
interim government.
Last
month, Malaysia made strong remarks about the status of Iraq in the
OIC, saying it will not agree that the occupied Muslim nation
participates in the OIC Summit to be held in Malaysia.
It
appears that strong lobbies from some Arab countries and in particular
from the U.S. has brought the Malaysian government to accept a formula
to allow a representative of the U.S. formed ruling council to
represent Iraq in Malaysia.
During
a visit to Putra Jaya, the new administrative city where the OIC
summit will be held, IOL saw the old Iraqi flag with the stars and the
words “Allah Akbar” inscribed in Arabic, hanging on a pole along
side other flags of member countries of the OIC.
"We
have no process or request to drop Iraq and Iraq has informed us that
it will be sending its representatives. We will accept them as
representatives of the people...as OIC members," Syed Hamid said.
He
said the recognition was accorded because they were representatives of
the Iraqi people, not representatives of the conquerors.
Syed
Hamid said Iraq was expected to be represented by the president or
chairman of the ruling council.
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The Logo of the OIC
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"We
have consulted many OIC member countries and they all wanted Iraq to
attend," he said.
Syed
Hamid said Iraq would remain a member of the OIC even if it did not
attend the tenth OIC summit.
However,
he insisted Iraq's attendance had nothing to do with the legitimacy of
the present government in the country.
"We
recognize the people of Iraq who want to attend, represented by the
interim government (interim governing council), not by the foreign
occupying forces," he said.
Malaysia
was hoping to isolate Iraq by forbidding it to participate in the OIC
summit, thus bringing the U.S.-British governments to a consensus on
the role of the United Nations (UN) in the occupied country.
Malaysia
will lead the OIC for a span of three years and is expected to boost
the organization’s role on the world platform where Muslim countries
seem to be lacking a proper forum to express their views.
