ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar will attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah on Thursday to discuss Israel’s recent measures to expand control over the West Bank, the foreign office said. 

Dar, who also serves as Pakistan’s foreign minister, will participate in the Extraordinary Ministerial Session of the OIC’s Executive Committee on Thursday. The OIC has said the meeting in Jeddah will discuss “illegal” Israeli decisions aimed at the West Bank’s annexation.

Israel’s decision this month to approve land registration procedures in parts of the West Bank for the first time since 1967 have drawn sharp criticism from Muslim nations, who see it as a move to ease the path for settlement expansion and potential annexation.

“In the Ministerial Session, the Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister will share Pakistan’s perspective on the latest illegal measures by Israel to convert areas of the Occupied West Bank into so-called ‘state land,’” the foreign office said. 

Dar will visit the Kingdom from Feb. 26-28, during which he will also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from OIC member states, the foreign office added. 

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, excluding Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, alongside around three million Palestinians.
Settlements are considered illegal under international law, a position Israel disputes.

Pakistan and 21 other Muslim nations on Wednesday condemned Israel’s measures to expand control over the West Bank, warning the steps risk advancing “unacceptable de facto annexation” and undermining prospects for a two-state solution.