Iran Urges OIC to Follow Right Path
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A top Iranian diplomat deplored a recent communique by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as unbalanced, calling on the organization to act correctly and try to deal with the real challenges that the Islamic world faces.
“The Organization of Islamic Cooperation should tread on the right path in order to serve the Islamic world and address the challenges such as sectarianism,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters on the sidelines of an academic meeting in Tehran on Sunday.
He also criticized the final communique of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers' extraordinary meeting, held in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on January 23, for making a fuss about an attack on Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Iran announced in the gathering that there exist much more pressing problems in the Muslim world that the OIC needs to deal with, Araqchi explained.
The extraordinary OIC meeting in Jeddah was held immediately to rush to condemn the embassy attack, while it has been more than a year since the Palestinian government called for an extraordinary meeting of the OIC to address the Israeli invasion of the al-Aqsa Mosque, he added.
Araqchi then rejected the final communique as "unbalanced", saying Iran and Lebanon dissociated themselves from it at the meeting.
Moreover, many other member states only condemned the embassy attack, while the vast majority of the participants disapproved of the other parts of the communique, he noted.
Saudi Arabia decided to sever relations with Iran after the kingdom’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr drew widespread international condemnation and ignited furious protests in Iran, during which some of the demonstrators stormed the Saudi diplomatic buildings in the cities of Tehran and Mashhad.
Iranian officials condemned the attacks, with President Hassan Rouhani calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
The perpetrators are standing trial in Iran.