Kuwait emir, Jordan king, Egypt FM to attend OIC summit

By Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

KUWAIT CITY/AMMAN/CAIRO

Kuwait on Thursday announced that Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber Al Sabah would head the Kuwaiti delegation to an upcoming Istanbul-hosted Islamic summit on Gaza, Kuwait’s official KUNA news agency reported.

Sheikh Sabah, KUNA reported, “will leave the country on May 18 for Istanbul to attend the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)”.

Jordanian King Abdullah II, meanwhile, will head up his country’s delegation to Friday’s OIC summit, Jordan’s official Petra news agency reported.

In the same context, Egypt announced Thursday that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry would also briefly visit Istanbul Friday to participate in the event, which is being convened to discuss recent events in Palestine and Israel.

At the summit, Shukry will review Egypt’s position on the Palestine issue, the status of Jerusalem, and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Thursday welcomed Turkey’s initiative to convene an extraordinary summit in Istanbul following Israeli killings of dozens of unarmed Palestinian protesters.

“Pakistan believes that this summit will accord opportunity to the OIC to discuss the grave situation and to come up with a collective response,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal told reporters in capital Islamabad during his weekly briefing.

Friday’s OIC summit is expected to strongly condemn Monday’s massacre by Israel of at least 62 Palestinians near the fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The summit will also likely be attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Afghan President Ashraf Gani and Mauritanian President Mohammad Ould Abdulaziz.

The summit is expected to produce a strongly-worded resolution condemning the recent Israeli violence.