KUALA LUMPUR, 26 April 2004 — Members of the world’s biggest grouping of Muslim states will try to revive the stalled peace road map for Israel and the Palestinians by meeting an international quartet of sponsors behind the plan, Malaysian media reported yesterday.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said a delegation from the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) would meet with members of the quartet soon.
“I have received encouraging responses from the British and Russian sides, as well as the US ... In two weeks, we hope to meet the quartet in New York,” Syed Hamid was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
The road map — sponsored by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia — envisions the creation of a Palestinian state along with guarantees for a halt to attacks against Israel.
Syed Hamid however declined to identify the OIC countries selected for the meeting and said the date had not been decided.
“I have not informed the countries as yet, so I am very reluctant to announce the countries,” he said. The daily said representatives from OIC members Malaysia, Senegal, Morocco, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority had been selected.
The proposal to send the OIC delegation was agreed upon at an emergency meeting of the group, held on Thursday in Malaysia.
The Palestinians have said the peace plan is effectively dead because of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposal for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip while holding on to parts of the occupied West Bank. The OIC’s chairman is Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
