History teaches us that moral credibility is what legitimizes people as well as nations. You cannot, for example, be a lawyer for a case if you are accused of similar crimes. I thought of this while I followed news of the Islamic conference recently held in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur attended by Iran, Turkey and Qatar.

The conference was meant to support the issues of Muslims in Kashmir and Palestine as well as the Uighurs in China. There is no question that there are serious crimes committed against Muslims in these countries, but it is unfair for the team of lawyers to be Turkey, Iran and Qatar.

Turkey is the country that annexed the Iskenderun Brigade area from Syria and now occupies by military force the area north of the Syrian Euphrates. It intervenes militarily in Libya to support extremist militia and provides aid to extremists in Egypt.

Iran, which forcibly occupied the Arab region of Ahvaz and prides itself on its occupation of four Arab capitals, has in the words of many of its officials, an “historical” and “permanent” right to reclaim Bahrain and establish extremist terrorist militias in the Arab world.

Qatar, which seized the land of Al-Zubarah, which historically belongs to Bahrain, has in its short history tried to transgress on Bahraini islands and on Saudi border lands, and has used its money to finance terrorist militias and militant movements in various Arab countries.

These three countries have a clear-cut objective that is no longer hidden and they believe that reaching that goal justifies every method, however illogical or immoral. The conference only succeeded in further weakening the position of those who propose to be persuasive lawyers for a valid cause. You have to be an honest mirror of the moral approach that you claim, so that what you accuse others of is not something that you are accused of yourself.

This is a universally recognized rule in the world of politics and when it is not followed it leads to the failure of important issues due to the loss of moral credibility. The international community is not so naive that it can be hijacked by emotional slogans about serious crimes raised by patrons of regimes who commit these same crimes against their people and others.

Therefore, the conference was not treated seriously on the international level, except that it highlighted the fact that the project of the evil triangle in the region continues to expand, no matter how conciliatory treatises, understandings and side discussions appear to suggest otherwise.