Istanbul – The foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states met on Friday in Istanbul over a roadmap that seeks to end Israel’s violence policy.
Addressing the meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said the Islamic world must ensure that “Israeli authorities and Israeli soldiers, who point a gun at defenceless people are held to account.”
The top Turkish diplomat also urged Muslim countries to take all necessary precautions to prevent other countries from following the U.S. example and opening their embassies in Jerusalem, as the Palestinians are striving for an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“At the end of the OIC Istanbul summit, we will shout out that we won’t allow any change to Jerusalem’s historical status,” he said.
The U.S. relocation of its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday sparked protests and clashes with Israeli forces at the Gaza border in which more than 60 Palestinians were killed.
This had made Turkey to recall its ambassadors to Tel Aviv and Washington and call for an extraordinary OIC summit in Istanbul on Friday.
In his address to the OIC foreign ministers, Yousef Al-Othaimeen, the organisation’s secretary-general, described the U.S. embassy move as “provocative” and defined Israel’s use of force against Palestinians as “a crime against humanity.”
Gazans have been protesting along the border with Israel for the past six weeks as part of what organisers have called the “Great March of Return.” But the mass protests on Monday were “unprecedented,” according to IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis