JEDDAH: The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will meet in Istanbul, Turkey, on Aug. 1 to discuss the crisis around Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, it said in a statement Monday. Turkey currently holds the OIC presidency.
“The issue of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line that can never be toyed with under any circumstances,” the OIC said in a statement after a meeting in Jeddah.
“Attacking Al-Aqsa Mosque in any way and under whatever pretext will have serious consequences and will lead to instability in the region,” it added.
The statement was read by Ambassador Samir Bakr Diyab, the OIC’s assistant secretary-general for Palestine affairs, on behalf of Secretary-General Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen.
The statement was delivered at the opening of the emergency meeting of the OIC committee of permanent representatives, which discussed the ongoing developments in Al-Quds Al-Shareef.
The OIC warned that “compromising Al-Aqsa Mosque in any form and under any circumstances will have very grave consequences.”
Ambassador Diyab remarked that “the ongoing events at Al-Aqsa were premeditated and planned for execution by Israel, the occupying power, in order to gain full control of Al-Aqsa and to begin to divide it temporally and spatially the way it did with the Ibrahimi Mosque.”
The statement saluted and praised the Palestinian people, particularly those in Al-Quds, who lead in defending their city and holy sites on behalf of the entire Islamic Ummah.
“Israel defies and denigrates international resolutions on a daily basis,” the statement pointed out.
The secretary-general also said that “the fast rate of Israeli plans aimed at Judaizing Al-Quds is unprecedented, particularly after UNESCO’s endorsement of the resolution affirming that Al-Aqsa is one of Islam’s holy sites.”
Ambassador Taysir Jaradat, undersecretary of Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called for “full condemnation of all Israeli measures seeking to change the existing historical condition and prevent Muslims from accessing Al-Aqsa Mosque to freely practice their religious rites.”
Jaradat also called for the establishment of an OIC committee to follow up these processes and generate ideas for comprehensive action by international organizations, human rights groups and influential states in the international community to play a role in pressuring Israel to rescind its decisions.
Jaradat urged the international community to assume its responsibilities in relation to “this grave violation which requires joint Arab and Islamic action at all levels.”
Al-Aqsa Mosque issue is a red line, warns OIC
Al-Aqsa Mosque issue is a red line, warns OIC
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
