Kuwaiti emir, Egyptian FM to attend OIC Istanbul summit

By Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

KUWAIT/CAIRO (AA) - Kuwait on Thursday announced that Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber Al Sabah would head the Kuwaiti delegation to an upcoming Istanbul-hosted Islamic summit on Gaza, Kuwait’s official KUNA news agency reported.

Sheikh Sabah, KUNA reported, “will leave the country on May 18 for Istanbul to attend the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation”.

In the same context, Egypt announced Thursday that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry would also visit Istanbul on Friday to participate in the event, which is being convened to discuss recent events in Palestine.

At the summit, Shukry will review Egypt’s position on the Palestine issue, the status of Jerusalem, and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement.

The OIC summit is expected to strongly condemn Monday’s massacre by Israel of at least 62 Palestinians -- the youngest of whom was only eight months old -- near the Gaza-Israel fence.

The summit will likely be attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Afghan President Ashraf Gani and Mauritanian President Mohammad Ould Abdulaziz.

The summit is expected to produce a strongly-worded resolution condemning the recent Israeli violence.