RIYADH — The people of Afghanistan are facing a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis this winter. Millions of Afghan women, children, and elderly people are in need of immediate assistance, including access to food, medicine, and shelter.

Impending economic collapse and further deterioration of living conditions will lead to more instability within Afghanistan, which will adversely affect regional and international peace and security.

Guided by principles of Islamic solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, as chair of the Islamic Summit, and in-line with relevant OIC decisions on Afghanistan, called upon the OIC to urgently convene an Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in the country and pathways for an urgent humanitarian response.

Pakistan has offered to host this meeting, in Islamabad on Dec. 17, 2021. The Kingdom looks forward to convening this urgent meeting and hopes that it results in finding appropriate means and mechanisms to deliver aid to the Afghan people, and to coordinate procedures with relevant UN agencies, international financial institutions, and the international community for the sake of mitigating the humanitarian impact and alleviating the suffering of the Afghan people.

The Kingdom hopes this will also serve as an opportunity to demonstrate a collective stance on key principles. This includes the importance of taking steps to ensure Afghanistan’s security and stability and preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity, free from external interference, while rejecting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and ensuring that Afghan territory is not used as a refuge or safe haven for terrorist and extremist groups.

This meeting should also urge the interim government in Afghanistan to be more inclusive, to abide by international norms and conventions, and to respect human rights and women’s rights to work and education granted in Islam.

The Kingdom urges member states, international organizations, and invited countries to, actively, participate in this meeting, in order to mobilize Islamic and international action to help the people of Afghanistan.

The OIC, earlier, condemned the storming of Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron by the Israeli President Isaac Herzog, describing it as part of plans to Judaize and take over control of it.

In a statement issued Monday, the OIC considered the storming of the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque a provocation of Muslims’ sensibilities and a continuation of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people’s rights, land and holy sites.

The OIC also called on the international community to act urgently to protect those holy and historical sites, and to compel the Israeli occupation authorities to respect the sacredness of the holy sites, implement relevant UN resolutions, and provide protection for the Palestinian people’s land and holy sites. — SPA