JEDDAH — The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has signed an agreement with Myanmar to establish an office to provide humanitarian aid to Muslim refugees in the country, OIC spokesman Tariq Bakheet said on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference at the headquarters of the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah, Bakheet said a fact-finding mission dispatched by the OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu to Myanmar, signed the agreement on Tuesday. “This is a significant positive development,” he indicated. Bakheet said the OIC Secretary-General is planning a visit to Myanmar. He disclosed that the members of the OIC delegation are continuing their mission in Myanmar and had meetings with several officials and conducted field visits to sites for the displaced. The delegation would report its findings to the Contact Group on the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which will hold its first meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly next week in New York, to take the appropriate decisions. On Syria, he believed that the Syrian regime's attempt to impose a solution by military force has failed completely and that the regime has to realize that Lakhdar Brahimi represents the last chance for a peaceful solution, especially since the military option has failed.
He added that the situation on the ground in Syria is increasingly dangerous with the intensification of fighting. He said Ihsanoglu would hold consultations on Syria on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week. As for the situation in the Republic of Mali and Sahel, the ambassador said the secretary-general is holding consultations to appoint a special envoy to the region to find a peaceful solution to the crisis. The spokesman said the OIC welcomes the election of Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud as the country's new president.
