TEHRAN, May 22 (MNA) – The OIC meetings should serve as a forum for promoting unity among Muslim states rather than a platform for division and enmity, said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Gholam-Hossein Dehghani.

He made the remarks Tuesday in a meeting with the ambassadors of Islamic countries to Tehran.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, the meeting was held ahead of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is due to be held in Saudi Arabia.

During the Tuesday meeting, Dehghani elaborated on the stances and views of the Islamic Republic regarding the priorities of the Islamic world as well as the latest regional developments.

He also warned about the plots hatched by the Zionist regime and certain extra-regional powers to mislead the OIC, calling on the Islamic countries to remain vigilant against the conspiracies and deviations.

Dehghani further noted that the issue of Palestine is still the top and major goal and priority of the OIC.

He then referred to the current situation of the Islamic world and Western Asia, especially the plots hatched by US President Donald Trump and the Zionist regime for the region, and efforts to sow the seeds of division among the Islamic states.

The OIC and its summits including the upcoming Mecca meeting should serve as a forum for promoting cohesion and solidarity among the Islamic Ummah rather than turning into a platform for division, enmity and raising issues totally irrelevant to the OIC's goals under the pressure of the outsiders and some of their cronies, Dehghani noted.

He underlined that the Islamic states should resist any divisive measures and efforts to deviate the OIC members from the main goal of the Muslim world, that is Palestine. "Any effort in this line would only serve [the interests of] the Zionist regime and the Trump administration," he noted.

The Iranian diplomat also called for applying the principle of consensus and transparency in the OIC decision-making and criticized the current trend which completely ignores the stances of some states including Iran during the organization's meetings. 

Dehghani also referred to the discriminatory and anti-Iran stances of the secretariat of the OIC over the past years and said the secretariat, under pressure by Saudi Arabia, has moved away from its professional goals and adopted a new approach to exert pressure on its members. "The approach is damaging and violates all accepted principles and procedures in all the international organizations," he said.

The Iranian official then called on the secretariat to observe the principles of impartiality and transparency and said the secretariat should respect the basic and major goal of the OIC to defend the rights of the Palestinians and fight against the Zionist regime's conspiracies.

During the meeting, some of the ambassadors, in turn, elaborated on their governments' views on the regional and global developments. The ambassadors also raised questions about the agenda of the meeting which were duly responded by the Iranian official.

MNA/MFA