Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH - Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Yousef Al-Othaimeen said that the issue of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line.

In a speech delivered on his behalf by Ambassador Samir Bakr Diyab, assistant secretary general of OIC for Palestine affairs, Al-Othaimeen said that compromising the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in any form and under any circumstances will have very grave consequences and would destabilize the region.

The OIC chief’s remarks came at the opening of the emergency session of the OIC Committee of Permanent Representatives held to discuss the recent Israeli escalation in the occupied Jerusalem and the unprecedented violations by Israel of Al-Aqsa Mosque sanctity, through its closure and imposition of illegal measures.

The OIC General Secretariat will hold an emergency meeting at the level of foreign ministers in Istanbul on August 1 to discuss the latest developments in Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Al-Othaimeen said the ongoing events in Al-Aqsa were premeditated and executed by Israel in order to gain full control of Al-Aqsa and to begin to divide it temporally and spatially the way it did with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.

The secretary general saluted and praised the Palestinian people, particularly those in Jerusalem, who are in the vanguard of defending their city and holy sites on behalf of the entire Islamic Ummah.

The statement also mentioned the fact that Israel on a daily basis defies and denigrates international legitimacy resolutions. The secretary general also said that the fast rate of Israeli plans aimed at Judaizing Jerusalem is unprecedented, particularly after UNESCO’s endorsement of the resolution affirming that Al-Aqsa is one of Islam’s holy sites.

In his speech, Ambassador Taysir Jaradat, deputy foreign minister of Palestine, called for full condemnation of all Israeli measures seeking to change the existing historical condition and prevent the Muslims from accessing the Al-Aqsa Mosque to freely practice their religious rites. He expressed the hope that the OIC meeting would come up with a resolution that would help pile pressure on Israel to rescind these measures.

In a communique adopted at the end of the session, the committee stated that Jerusalem is the central issue of the Islamic Ummah and the rationale for establishment of the OIC, a fact that requires member states to take action to support the people of Palestine, in all international forums.

It also condemned all punitive measures taken by Israel through the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, prohibition of prayer and calling for prayer from its minarets, the entry of the Israeli police and settlers into the mosque, and preventing worshipers and employees and arresting them.

Israel, the occupying power, had no legal sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Islamic and Christian holy sites, a fact that is affirmed by all international conventions and resolutions, the meeting pointed out.

The meeting stressed the rejection of all measures imposed by Israel on Islam’s third holy city and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The OIC statement called on member states to intervene to prevent Israeli colonial measures as well as to strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and to meet their humanitarian challenges by providing them with urgent financial and economic support.