Iran FM Calls on OIC to Hold Emergency Meeting after NZ Attacks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif strongly condemned a Friday terrorist attack on Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, calling on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to hold an emergency session on the carnage.
In a Friday phone conversation with Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, which is the rotating president of the OIC, Zarif called for appropriate reaction of Muslim states to this heinous crime.
The Iranian foreign minister pointed to the New Zealand terrorist attack as well as Israeli soldiers’ recent insult to a mosque in the occupied Palestine and proposed that the OIC immediately holds an emergency meeting at the level of leaders or foreign ministers.
At least one gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 40 during Friday prayers at two New Zealand mosques in the country's worst ever-mass shooting, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned as terrorism.
The Australian gunman behind the massacre, identified as Brenton Tarrant, broadcast live footage on Facebook of the attack on one mosque in the city of Christchurch, mirroring the carnage played out in video games, after publishing a "manifesto" in which he denounced immigrants, calling them "invaders".
In his manifesto, Tarrant said he saw US President Donald Trump as “symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”