07 March 2016•Update: 07 March 2016
By Sarp Ozer and Ali Kemal Akan
JAKARTA
Turkey's deputy prime minister has underlined the need to support the rights of the Palestinian people, saying at a summit of Muslim nations in Indonesia's capital Monday that without it there will be no peace in the Middle East.
Answering journalists' questions on the sidelines of the last day of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) 5th Extraordinary Summit in Jakarta, Numan Kurtulmus said that delegates needed to underline that the failure to achieve world peace is due to an inability to achieve peace in the Middle East.
"Without providing the rights of Palestinian people, who are the real owners of Palestinian land, it is impossible to achieve peace in the Middle East," Kurtulmus said.
"Without peace in the Middle East, the world cannot be left without terrorism."
Indonesia -- which does not recognize Israel -- hosted the two-day summit of the world’s largest intra-Islamic body in Jakarta, which focused on Palestine and Al-Quds.
The summit took place at a time of increased tensions in the Middle Eastern region.
Since last October, a rise in Palestinian frustrations has been attributed to the insistence of extremist Jewish settlers -- often accompanied by Israeli security forces -- of forcing their way into East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Islam’s third holiest site.
Earlier Monday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo stressed that his country will always recognize Palestine, underlining that the limit of the international community's tolerance had ended long ago.
"Israel must immediately stop the illegal occupation over Palestine and its aggression," the president affirmed, adding that his country is always committed to supporting Palestine's independence through concrete measures.
"The OIC was set up to help Palestine so the OIC should be part of the Palestinian solution. If, it's not, the OICs existence will no longer be relevant. Once again, not relevant," he underlined, according to Indonesian news agency Antara.
Delivering the closing speech at the summit, Widodo said the Muslim world is on common ground to support Palestine's independence claims.
"First, Muslim countries will take a step towards resolving their [Palestinians] problems," Widodo said, announcing the final declaration of the summit.
"The second step is to strengthen relations between Muslim countries with a busy diplomatic schedule."
He added that there would be a collective effort to boycott Israeli products in the international arena to help Palestine in their cause.
Over 500 delegates from 49 member countries of the OIC, two observer countries, five representatives of the United Nations Security Council's permanent members, and a United Nations special envoy to the Quarter on the Middle East, attended the two-day summit which finished Monday.
*Anadolu Agency correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun contributed to this story from Ankara
