MARRAKESH: The twentieth session of the al-Quds committee, an offshoot of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), will be held on Friday in Marrakesh with Morocco’s King Muhammad VI in the chair.
The advisor to the prime minister on foreign affairs and national security Sartaj Aziz will represent Pakistan which has been executive member of the al-Quds committee since its establishment in 1975.
In her weekly media briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that at the meeting in Morocco, Pakistan would speak in favour of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The spokesperson said that Pakistan is against Israel’s continued construction of illegal settlements in occupied territories, adding that Jerusalem should be liberated from Israeli occupation.
The al-Quds committee includes 16 Muslim countries of Bangladesh‚ Egypt‚ Guinea‚ Indonesia‚ Iran‚ Iraq‚ Jordan‚ Lebanon‚ Mauritania‚ Morocco‚ Niger‚ Pakistan‚ the Palestinian Authority‚ Saudi Arabia‚ Senegal and Syria which back Palestine rights for Quds as its capital.
The committee seeks a political solution to the issue of Jerusalem’s status, in order to further the peace process to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This year, international, non-Islamic observers, including representatives from the Vatican, the European Union, United Nations Security Council member states, and US President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the OIC will join the 16 Islamic member nations.
