Islamic heads of more than 30 states have agreed a Ten-year plan of action in a bid to tackle extremism and security issues threatening the Islamic world.
By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,
Istanbul: Over 30 heads of Islamic countries have established a Ten-Year plan of action for Islamic world and committed to create new anti-extremism centre and an international peace conference to resolve Arab-Israeli conflict.
This was agreed upon at the 13th Islamic Summit of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Istanbul on April 14-15, 2016. (OIC) is the second largest inter-governmental body after the U.N. convened Heads of State from across its 57 member states.
With leaders present included Turkish President Recep Erdogan, the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, the conference saw a vast array of differing countries come together to try and establish an agreed action plan.
OIC Member states agreed to establish an Istanbul-based police cooperation and coordination center to tackle terror and other crimes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “It would be helpful to establish a structure among member states that will strengthen and institutionalize cooperation against terror and other crimes”.
The member states agreed to a series of deals – including denouncing Lebanon’s Shiite group Hezbollah for spreading terrorism and for destabilizing the national security of its member countries. It also included a plan to tackle rising tide of “xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism in Western countries”.
Nations also agreed to establish an international peace conference to address the Israel-Palestine conflict, along with a new Islamic centre for food security to help famine stricken countries.
The conference also called on the international community and OIC Member States to support Syrian refugees and to develop resettlement programmes for Syrian refugees in order to alleviate their plights and that of the hosting States.
Iyad Madani, OIC Secretary General said, “The Ten Year Program of Action will be a significant reference for us in all our OIC activities, in full coordination with the OIC Member States, bodies and institutions that have a significant role in its implementation.”