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Mahathir:
OIC Nations May Act Against The U.S.
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said member countries of the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) have begun to talk openly about taking
actions against Israel’s close ally, the United States.
He
said he believed they would be ready to cut off ties with the U.S. in protest
against the heavy handed and violent tactics by the Israelis against
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
He said members' speeches during the Ninth
Session of the Islamic Summit Conference here showed they were more serious than
ever to demonstrate their solidarity in support of the Palestinians.
He added that many members had expressed
outrage at America's intentions to move their diplomatic offices from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem.
"I believe that if there is no response
[from both countries] to the wishes of the OIC members, they will certainly take
action,'' Mahathir said after attending a dinner on Sunday with Malaysians
working in Qatar.
Mahathir has turned his criticism towards the
United States following the tacit support the leaders of the country seems to
have given to the jailed former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Legislators and high profile House of
Representative members in Washington are calling for sanctions on Malaysia.
Observers believe that Mahathir has decided to take the Americans to the same
level of criticism.
During his speech as representative of the
Asian group at the opening of the summit in Doha, Mahathir lashed at Muslim
countries for their stalemated attitude towards the violence in Palestine and
the occupied territories.
He said Muslims should regard attacks by the
Israeli soldiers on Palestinians as attacks on the Muslims' dignity and honor,
and called on member countries to unite and face the problem.
Mahathir also said that he was sad his country
did not make it to the 2006 Asian Games, which was granted to Qatar.
After the Commonwealth games in 1998, the Asian
Games had been in the plans of the leaders of Malaysia to prove that the country
was ready to host important events.
Mahathir said: "We are sad. We thought we
might be chosen as the host. We will find out the reasons why we did not make
it.''
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
said Malaysia had enough high standard facilities to produce a successful Asian
Games and that he found it very strange the games has been given to Qatar, “a
country which does not have sporting facilities like Malaysia.”
“We will have to find out why, and what are the
criteria’s that made us fail the game” a clearly disappointed Badawi told
the press.
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