Alwaght- Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Saudi regime is employing tactics used by Iraq’s deposed dictator Saddam Hussein to undermine Iran through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Speaking in Istanbul on Wednesday during a preparatory session of OIC Summit to be held on 14-15 April, Zarif said that attempts by the Saudis to use the OIC mechanism to achieve their political goals resemble efforts by the former regime of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein against Iran during the organization’s meeting at the time of Iraq’s imposed war against Iran in the 1980s.
The Iranian foreign minister stated that members of the OIC should “learn the lesson” from those experiences and refrain from adopting “failed policies.”
He further condemned Saudi Arabia’s "destructive" move to include statements against the Islamic Republic and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement in the draft declaration of the 13th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The draft was prepared during an expert-level OIC meeting in February in the Saudi port city of Jaddah, which the Iranian officials could not attend as they were denied visas by Riyadh.
‘According to a report by Iran’s news agency ,IRNA, Zarif noted that Saudi regime’s attempts for the inclusion of four paragraphs in the draft declaration against Iran and one more against Hezbollah were against the “spirit of Islamic solidarity” which can only serve the interests of the Israeli regime.
Iran-Saudi ties have been experiencing tensions over the recent issues following fundamental differences between the two major Muslim states over fundamental issues in the region. Iran has sided the resistance movements in the West Asia region while the Saudi regime is in the pro-West and pro-Israeli camp in the region. Ties between the two states took a turn to the worse in January after the Saudi regime unjustly executed Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a prominent Islamic scholar and an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy. The execution sparked global condemnation and widespread protests across the Muslim world, including in Iran, where some irate protesters attacked Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The Saudi regime which was always looking for an excuse to cut of ties with Iran, cut off all diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Zarif said Saudi Arabia is continuing to “make excuses” out of the incidents that happened at its diplomatic missions in Iran, adding that Iran has openly condemned those events.
Based on previous announcements, more than 30 leaders and heads of states will partake the Summit led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is already in Istanbul to participate in the OIC Summit.
The OIC Summit is held once in every three years. The previous summit was hosted by Egypt in 2013. The permanent Secretariat is located in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah.
The OIC has declared that practical decisions and measures will be taken in the Istanbul OIC Leaders' Summit with the aim of joint Islamic efforts and strengthening the role of OIC both at the region and the world.
The OIC summit will be held under the theme “Unity and Solidarity for Justice and Peace.” A resolution on the Palestinian issue and support for international efforts to relaunch a "collective political process" will be issued at the end of the summit.
The participants will also discuss the ongoing crises and problems in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Jammu and Kashmir, conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan Republic as well as other insecure Muslim states.
