ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will be in Saudi Arabia on May 27-28 to attend ministerial level meetings ahead of the Islamic Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the foreign office said on Thursday, paving the way for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s trip to the Kingdom to attend the summit on May 31.

Saudi Arabia will host the 14th session of the OIC’s Islamic Summit in Makkah on May 31, chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The summit, according to the Saudi Press Agency, will follow the theme of “Makkah Summit: Together for the Future” and aims to develop a unified stance on events in the Islamic world.

Foreign office spokesman Dr. Muhammad Faisal confirmed to Arab News that PM Khan would be participating in the summit and was expected to address members of the forum.

Prince Fahd bin Sultan Al Saud, the governor of the Tabuk Region in northwestern Saudi Arabia, called on Khan on Thursday and said he looked forward to the prime minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia for the OIC summit.

It is also expected that Khan will use the forum to highlight continuing Israeli ‘aggression’ in Palestine at the upcoming summit.

Israel started building its settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in the wake of the Six Day War in June 1967. During the run-up to elections this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex all these settlements — built in violation of international law — if he won another term in office, which he has.

“Pakistan remains on the forefront of supporting our Palestinian brethren in all OIC regular meetings,” the foreign office spokesman said at a press briefing in April. “We have supported resolutions on Palestine issue at the platform of OIC which strongly condemns the Israeli aggression.”

Describing Pakistan’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Faisal said only the “establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, on the basis of internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders, and with Al-Quds and Al-Sharif as its capital” would guarantee sustainable peace in West Asia.