The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Iyad Amin Madani, has expressed deep disappointment at the failure of the UN Security Council to approve a draft resolution that calls for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories within three years; and at the position of the countries that rejected the resolution or abstained from voting for it. In its statement today, the OIC Secretary General added that the Organization is surprised by the pretexts of the objecting countries to the draft resolution that it "does not serve the goals of peace, and would undermine the peace process"; and by their call for open negotiating process without a timeframe. "These countries seem to overlook the fact that the Palestinians have sat at the negotiating table and have been involved in the peace process for more than twenty years. During this time, Israel persisted in building and expanding settlements that now cover most of the West Bank; and in systematically planting hundreds of thousands of settlers in the occupied territories; and in ceaselessly pushing for the Judaization of Al-Quds and changing its Arab, Muslim and Christian demographic and religious characters; and in completing the construction of the apartheid wall which devours large areas of Palestinian land; and in destroying the Gaza Strip time and time again in brutal Israeli wars; and in throwing more and more Palestinians in Israeli jails," he pointed out. Madani said that those who call for peace negotiations without a specific framework and scheduled timeframe, and ignore Israel's refusal to meet the requirements for the resumption of the peace process, are actually calling for more time for Israel to complete its settlement colonial rule.
