U

nlike previous extraordinary Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summits, the one scheduled to start in Jakarta on Sunday will result in a declaration that is expected to materialize into concrete actions to address issues in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a foreign ministry senior official says.

Hasan Kleib, director general for multilateral affairs '€” who will lead the summit '€” is preparing two documents to be agreed upon by the end of the two-day summit.

The first one is a resolution, which Hasan said is a standard result of a summit, and the other is a declaration.

'€œThe resolution is a standard statement of interest, but the declaration is expected to be more politically, morally binding,'€ he told reporters recently.

'€œThere are no sanctions whatsoever, but it formulates steps to be taken onward and member counties are expected to follow up on the declaration.'€

The drafts of the two documents have been sent to and approved by the Palestinian authority, according to Hasan. He added that the documents have also been distributed to other member countries for
possible input.

Hasan said that the extraordinary summit was requested by Palestine and the OIC secretary-general on Dec. 14 on the sidelines of a UN Conference on the Question of Jerusalem held in Jakarta. The request from the OIC was made formal through a letter dated Jan. 13 and Indonesia accepted it through a formal letter dated Jan. 20.

Palestine requested a meeting that would specifically address issues on Jerusalem and Hasan said that the drafted declaration included steps to solve border issues, in which Palestine claims eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, repatriation of Palestinian refugees, a certain status for Jerusalem, illegal settlements and access to water.

He said that foreign ministers would negotiate the declaration on Sunday, before it is to be discussed and adopted by heads of state and government on Monday.

Hasan emphasized that no other issues but Palestine '€” including tensions in the Middle East '€” would be discussed in the summit to maintain focus, given the intensifying tension regarding the status of Jerusalem that made Palestine request the extraordinary meeting ahead of the regular OIC summit that is to take place in Turkey in April.

He, however, added that other issues could be discussed in bilateral meetings, if arranged, adding that there had been requests for several bilateral meetings between member countries.

Hasan said that so far 56 countries had confirmed attendance '€” including 47 of the 56 OIC member states. Presidents, prime ministers, princes, foreign ministers, special envoys and ambassadors will represent their respective countries.

Indonesia has also invited four observing political entities (Thailand, Russia, the European Union and Bosnia-Herzegovina), the Quartet on the Middle East (the United Nations, the EU, Russia and the US) and the permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, China, Russia, France and the UK) to attend the summit.

'€œNicolai Maladinov, UN Special Envoy for the Peace Process in the Middle East, along with representatives of the International Quartet Committee, will be attending the meeting'€™s sessions so as to apprise them about the current and latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the city of Al Quds/Jerusalem and brief them about the developments on the ground under the aggressive Israeli policies that keep rejecting and flouting all international agreements and laws,'€ according to a statement published by OIC.

The statement added that OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani had contacted international parties, including several European foreign ministers and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and reiterated his stand against the Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.