PARIS — The Islamic Ministerial Committee, led by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday. The delegation, on the fourth leg of its tour, engaged with members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in efforts to halt the military escalation, achieve a truce, protect civilians, and expand humanitarian corridors in Gaza. The ministers urged members of the Security Council and the international community to take effective and urgent measures for a complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, emphasizing its priority for all Arab and Islamic countries. The committee members, present at the meeting with Macron, included Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan Ayman Safadi, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Maliki, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was also in attendance. The meeting welcomed the joint mediation efforts of Egypt and Qatar, along with the United States, resulting in an agreement for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The timing of its commencement will be announced within 24 hours, with a duration of four days, extendable. The ministers affirmed the significance of securing safe passages for the delivery of humanitarian aid, food, water, fuel, and electricity to Gaza. The committee called upon France to play a balanced role in accordance with international law and humanitarian law to achieve an immediate and complete cessation of fire and to implement all relevant international resolutions. They urged the international community to fulfill its responsibility by rejecting all forms of selectivity in the application of international legal and ethical standards, and to protect the Palestinian people from the crimes committed by the occupying forces and settler militias against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The meeting also addressed the necessity of revitalizing the peace process. Committee members stressed the importance of ensuring a just, permanent, and comprehensive peace by implementing international decisions related to the two-state solution. They highlighted the need to enable the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate rights in establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state along the lines of June 4, 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Paris is the fourth stop of the tour of the members of the Islamic Ministerial Committee, deputed by the Arab and Islamic Summit held in Riyadh on Nov. 11 to undertake a high-level diplomatic mission to end the conflict in Gaza. The extraordinary joint Arab-Islamic Summit issued a resolution that tasked the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Palestine to initiate immediate international action, on behalf of all member states of the OIC and the Arab League, for this purpose.
