Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is accompanied by a high-ranking political delegation on his visit to Jakarta for participation in the extraordinary Organization of Islamic Coopearation (OIC) summit which will address issues in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In addition to attending the summit, Zarif will also hold talks with Indonesian officials.
The two-day extraordinary OIC summit will be held on March 6, as requested by Palestine and the OIC secretary-general on Dec. 14 on the sidelines of a UN Conference on the Question of Jerusalem held in Jakarta.
The summit will be attended by foreign ministers and representatives of the OIC who would negotiate the declaration – as approved by the Palestinian authority – on Sunday, before it is to be discussed and adopted by heads of state and government on Monday.
According to Hasan Kleib, director general for multilateral affairs of Indonesia, so far 56 countries had confirmed attendance – including 47 of the 56 OIC member states. Indonesia has also invited four observing political entities (Thailand, Russia, the European Union and Bosnia-Herzegovina), the Quartet on the Middle East (the United Nations, the EU, Russia and the US) and the permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, China, Russia, France and the UK) to attend the summit.
The Iranian foreign minister’s tour to East Asia and the Pacific is in line with the Islamic Republic’s active diplomatic steps in the post-sanction era for taking maximum advantage of the country’s newly freed resources and potentials.
Following Indonesia, Zarif will head for Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, New Zealand and Australia as the sixth leg of his tour.
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