BY:AIR
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT-Everyone knows the cruelty of the Israeli army to kill at will without considering humanity,Let’s support the Islamic leader invites unity against israel and its allies,Many Islamic leaders have called against Israel.
Iran on Monday called on the Muslim world to respond to the “savagery” and “cruelty” of Israel against Palestinians, following the escalation of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said in Tehran that Iran expresses “solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine.”
Israeli police firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets clashed with Palestinian stone-throwers at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site on Monday, the latest in a series of confrontations that is pushing the contested city to the brink of eruption.
More than a dozen tear gas canisters and stun grenades landed in the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, said an Associated Press photographer at the scene.
At least 215 Palestinians were hurt in the violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including 153 who were hospitalized, Palestinian medics said.
Four of the injured were in serious condition. Police said nine officers were hurt, including one who was hospitalized.
Monday’s confrontation was the latest in the sacred compound after days of mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israeli troops in the Old City of Jerusalem, the emotional ground zero of the conflict.
Hundreds of Palestinians and about two dozen police officers have been hurt over the past few days.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslim leaders to unite and confront Israel, days after scores of Palestinians were killed by Israeli snipers as they marked 70 years of Israeli occupation.
Speaking at an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Friday, Erdogan said Israel should be held accountable over the killings which drew widespread international condemnation and triggered a wave of protests from Asia, through the Middle East, to North Africa.
“To take action for Palestinians massacred by Israeli bandits is to show the whole world that humanity is not dead,” Erdogan told the group of Muslim leaders gathered in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul.
The Turkish president described Israel’s killing of Palestinians as “thuggery, atrocity and state terror,” and said the US’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would inevitably haunt it.
‘Collective punishment’
On Monday, as the United States went ahead with the controversial relocation of its embassy to Jerusalem, 62 Palestinians, including five children, were killed and more than 2,700 wounded as the Israeli army fired live ammunition and tear gas at protesters who had assembled hundreds of metres from a 1949 armistice line between Gaza and Israel.
The protesters in the besieged enclave had gathered for Nakba Day – a commemoration of the events of 1948 when Zionist paramilitaries ethnically cleansed Palestinian cities and towns. About 750,000 people were forcibly expelled from historical Palestine.
Several heads of state attended the Istanbul summit, but Saudi Arabia, the host of the 57-member OIC, sent only a senior foreign ministry official. Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE also sent lower-level ministers.
Speaking at the conference, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said the Palestinian cause had “become a symbol for oppressed peoples everywhere” and condemned Israel for the “brutal massacre” of peaceful demonstrators.
“Who among us does not know the declared siege forced on the Gaza Strip and the collective punishment against its population?” the emir said.
“The Gaza Strip has been transformed into a large concentration camp for millions of people who are deprived of their most basic rights to travel, education, work and medical treatment.
“When their sons take arms they are called terrorists, and when they stage peaceful demonstrations, they are called extremists, and are shot dead with live ammunition.”
‘US part of the problem’
For his part, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the US had become “part of the problem and not the solution” and called the relocation of the embassy “an act of aggression against the Islamic nation, against Muslims and Christians”.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II urged the adoption of urgent measures to back “the resistance of Palestinians”, while Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for economic and political measures against the US and Israel.
Late on Friday, the OIC issued a final communique calling on the United Nations to launch an international investigation into the killings in Gaza, the creation of an international protection force for Palestinians, and for the OIC to place economic restrictions on any countries, companies or individuals who recognise Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.
Thousands protest in solidarity with Palestine
Earlier in the day, Erdogan told a raucous crowd of more than 10,000 people in Istanbul’s Yenikapi fairground that the Muslim world had to unite and “pull themselves back together”.
“Muslims are way too busy fighting and disagreeing with themselves, and shy away when confronted by their enemies,” he told the audience.
“Since 1947, Israel has been free to do what it likes in this region. They do whatever they feel like. But this reality can be undone … if we unite.”
Earlier this week, Turkey recalled its envoys to Israel and the US following the killings of Palestinians and the relocation of Washington’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Impassioned scenes at a Palestine rally here in Istanbul as more than 10,000 protest Israel's brutal 70-year occupation. pic.twitter.com/CW45JQilV2
— Faisal | فيصل (@faisaledroos) May 18, 2018
Tolgar Memis, a German-Turk, said he came to the rally to support Erdogan’s recent remarks and policies against Israel.
“What we’ve seen over the last few years, all the injustice, and what happened earlier this week – it’s simply unacceptable.
“Erdogan has made great strides in defending the Palestinians, something he is obligated to do, and hopefully other leaders will follow his cue.”
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said that Pakistan is concerned about the recent violence in Palestine, adding that Muslims countries needed to unite in order to raise awareness about the issue.
Speaking to the media in Multan about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, he said: “The premier met with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s secretary general and contended that there was a need to unite the Muslim Ummah on the issue using this platform.
“We can raise our voices individually [but] the issue will be noted when all 57 OIC members voice their support. A lone Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia can’t do anything,” he said.
Qureshi also said he had received a call from his Turkish counterpart who explained to him the proposals — keeping in mind the situation at Al Aqsa — that would be discussed and presented in the latter’s meeting with the Saudi foreign minister.
The proposals included calling an emergency ministerial session of the OIC on the Al Aqsa situation to raise a voice against the use of force by Israeli security forces and to call an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, he said.
The Turkish foreign minister had asked for his opinion to which Qureshi had voiced his support after consulting with PM Imran.
“This is a matter of our belief, human rights, international law and challenging an apartheid regime and we are ready to do that,” said FM Qureshi.
Earlier, the Foreign Office (FO) had strongly condemned the air strikes by Israel in Gaza that resulted in deaths and injuries to innocent Palestinians, including children.
“This is yet another reprehensible action during the holy month of Ramazan. Indiscriminate use of force by Israeli forces against defenceless Palestinians defies all humanitarian norms and human rights laws. Pakistan calls upon the international community to put an end to the blatant use of force by Israel and flagrant violation of human rights of Palestinian people,” the FO statement said.
“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 Al Sharif as its capital, is the only sustainable guarantee for peace in the region,” the statement added.
OIC envoys deplore Israeli actions against Palestinians
A day earlier, the OIC, at a meeting in New York, unanimously endorsed Pakistan’s proposal for issuing a joint statement deploring the Israeli actions against Palestinians.
The meeting also approved a proposal from the ambassadors of Turkey and Saudi Arabia for mobilising international support to convene a special session of the General Assembly on the situation. The OIC envoys set up a core group of member states as well to highlight this issue at the UN. Pakistan is a key member of this core group.
The ambassadors of OIC member states held this urgent meeting at the United Nations to show their angst at the Israeli aggression and unequivocally condemned the recent use of “brutal” force by the Israeli forces against Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
In a statement issued after their meeting, the OIC ambassadors said the Israeli attacks on Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza were against all humanitarian norms and human rights laws, especially in the holy month of Ramazan.
The envoys urged the world community to immediately stop Israel’s attempts to evict residents of Sheikh Jarrah who have been living in that neighborhood for decades.
Saudi delegation to visit after Eid
During today’s press conference, the foreign minister also provided details on the premier’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia. “A direction for the future was set,” he said.
He said that Pakistan always had good political and strategic relations with the kingdom in the past but termed it an “ad-hoc arrangement”.
However, now a new agreement has been reached and an institutional arrangement and mechanism has been decided which PM Imran and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have signed, he said. “We call this the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council.”
He added that there would be regular engagement under the council and that it would have three pillars: a security and political pillar to be led by Pakistan’s foreign minister; economic outreach to be led by Pakistan’s finance minister; cultural, information and communication cooperation to be led by Pakistan’s minister for information and culture.
“There were three aspects to the talks we had,” Qureshi said, adding that one meeting was the “delegation-level talks” which included the prime minister, the crown prince, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, and Saudi and Pakistani ministers.
After that, the premier and the crown prince had another one-to-one meeting and then a “small group meeting” which included the prime minister, Qureshi and Gen Bajwa from the Pakistani side and the crown prince, defence minister and interior minister from the Saudi side.
“We had a small group meeting and we openly talked about […] bilateral, international and regional issues. We listened to each other in a very good and friendly atmosphere and presented our point of view.
“They shared their developments with us and we presented our thinking in their service,” Qureshi said, adding that it was decided after the meeting to have another one between him and his Saudi counterpart.
Qureshi said he had a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud. Giving details of the meeting, Qureshi said a delegation of senior Saudi officials would visit Pakistan after Eid and have a meeting with senior Pakistani officials at the Foreign Office.
“Their foreign minister will visit Pakistan keeping those talks as the basis,” said Qureshi. He added that he had requested his counterpart to visit for at least two days and the Saudi foreign minister had agreed.
Qureshi also added that on the basis of the institutional arrangement, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would also visit Pakistan soon. “It was decided that we have to give our relationship a new direction towards economic cooperation.”
The foreign minister said that the crown prince had developed a plan for Saudi Arabia’s development, Vision 2030. He said that labour would be required for those investments and thus it was decided to reserve a specific quota for Pakistani labour.
“New opportunities of livelihood will be created for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis through this in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Qureshi said that five agreements had been signed with Saudi Arabia and gave details on one he had signed which he said was “worthy of mention”. “Saudi Arabia has decided to give a further $500 million to Pakistan,” he said, adding the money would be for hydropower projects.Muslim states condemn Israel’s ‘barbaric attacks’ against Palestinians They are Israel and their allies will talk We are terrorists, looks like you need a psychiatrist.
