The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) on Wednesday this week held a summit in Istanbul Turkey which was attended by 20 heads of the state to counter the US move on Jerusalem issue. The 57 member organization made a unanimous declaration of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and thus negating the United States recognition of Jerusalem as Isreal’s capital, but apparently this collective statement of OIC has failed to match the magnitude of United states decision on Jerusalem issue that of last week. Til now there has been no positive reaction at International level from other than Muslim countries to the OIC’s stand on Jerusalem which means there are no diplomatic calculations associated with the Istanbul summit.
The shortcomings of OIC’s Istanbul summit were evident in the tepidness of two important members of the organisation; Saudi Arabia and Egypt who instead of sending their heads of state had deployed their foreign ministers to attend the summit. It is worth mentioning here that being close allies of United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt can play a decisive role in Palestine-Isreal conflict. Stance of Saudi Arabia on Palestine issue has altered considerably from sometime now which many political experts have attributed to its growing relation with the Isreal. It is evident that the two states share a common foreign policy concern of Iran’s growing dominance in the middle East. Also, Egypt is bound by the 1978 peace treaty with the Isreal brokered by the United States in return of massive financial aid. It becomes clear now as why Saudi Arabia and Egypt have shown a lack of ardour with respect to their participation in recently held Istanbul Summit. If the organisation has ruled out the role of United States as a mediator in Palestine-Israel conflict then one of its member among those which share a secret alliance with Isreal should come forward to play the role of a negotiator.
Since the time of its coming into being in 1967, it has not acted more than a talking shop as the organsiation has failed to achieve anything at the regional or international level. The Istanbul summit has been successful in just ensuring the physical unification of Muslim community but it is only the ideological unification of OIC member states that can manifest the real strength of the organsiation.
Almost all the heads of the states who spoke on the stage of the Summit just showed a ‘caring stance’ pertaining to the Jerusalem which was not enough to tackle the difficult task of reversing the US decision on Jerusalem issue. The gathering in Istanbul has pledged to take certain steps with regard to Jerusalem issue that include: raising the issue at every international forum and organisation and seeking UNSC resolution on Jerusalem to invalidate the Trump’s decision, nevertheless the summit has failed to convince the world community as why to take OIC seriously.
A serious challenge of Rohingya crisis which the organisation had discussed in Astana Kazakhstan summit, September this year continues to remain on the OIC’s ‘unfinished list’ and the same raises reasonable questions about its stand on the Jerusalem issue now. If the organisation could not achieve anything with regard to Rohingya issue, what could it possibly attain over the Jerusalem issue?
The organisation has to untangle itself of the weak member states which has put a constrain on its performance. Since the time of its coming into being in 1967, it has not acted more than a talking shop as the organsiation has failed to achieve anything at the regional or international level. The Istanbul summit has been successful in just ensuring the physical unification of Muslim community but it is only the ideological unification of OIC member states that can manifest the real strength of the organsiation. Imposing of sanctions (proposed in the summit) of whatsoever nature on Isreal is not possible for the organsiation as long as its member states do not become self-reliant in every aspect. Instead of fighting each other, the muslim nations should fight the social, political, economical challenges which are confronting them.
(The author a student of International relations at IUST Awantipora is a regular contributor of the edit page of English Daily “Kashmir Horizon”. The views of the author are his own)
