OIC vows backing for Middle East peace efforts

The secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Azeddine Laraki, has called on the international community to intensify international efforts to give a push forward to the Middle East peace process on all tracks and to work to resume negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks from the point at which they broke off in 1996.

The OIC secretary general called on the international community to work to halt all Israeli practices that violate international laws and charters in occupied Jerusalem.

On the occasion of the World Day in Solidarity with the Palestinian People that falls on November 30, the OIC chief on Sunday issued a statement in which he urged the international community to work to maintain the culture and historic features of occupied Jerusalem as well as for an immediate halt of settling and expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab and Palestinian lands.

He said these settlements threaten to torpedo the Middle East peace process, create tensions and violate the principles of the peace process, as well as all international resolutions and charters that consider settlements illegal and needing to be dismantled.

Laraki called on the international community to offer more backing to the Palestinians to enable them establish their own independent state and restore their rights.