PALESTINIANS MUST PREVENT CIVIL WAR: ISLAMIC CONFERENCE
Tehran Times, Iran
June 19 2006
BAKU (AFP) — Palestinian factions must fight a slide into civil
war which is being exploited by Israel, Islamic diplomats said at a
pan-Muslim conference in Azerbaijan on Monday.
"Palestinian forces should not allow a civil war to take place," the
foreign minister of Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar, said at the opening
of an Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting in Baku.
Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Kurbi, said the victory of the
Palestinian Hamas faction at parliamentary elections in January was
being exploited by Israel.
"The victory of Hamas is a trump card in the hands of Israel, which
does not want dialogue with the Palestinian government," he said.
He also called on international donors to resume the aid to the
Palestinians that was cut by Western governments after the Hamas win.
"Today there are threats to blockade the Palestinian people. We demand
donor countries aid Palestine," Kurbi said.
Foreign ministers of Islamic nations have gathered in Baku
for a meeting expected to be dominated by developments in the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and in Iraq as well as the crisis over
Iran’s nuclear program.
"We support UN calls for the Persian Gulf to be free of nuclear
weapons. At the same time Israel must also sign the nuclear
non-proliferation agreement," Kurbi said.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev also called for reforms to the
UN Security Council, which he said has "no effective mechanism for
implementing decisions.
"If a decision is made it must be executed. If a country does not
execute a decision, sanctions should be used against it," Aliyev said
in a veiled jab at Azerbaijan’s foe Armenia which Baku believes has
not complied with UN resolutions over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave.