Manama: When the two-day Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit opens in Istanbul on Thursday to address some of the most complex problems faced by Muslims, seven leaders will be making their first participations as heads of state.
These leaders were not in charge of their countries when the OIC held its 12th summit that was held in Cairo in February 2013.
The most prominent is the Saudi king Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who succeeded his brother King Abdullah on January 23 last year.
The summit’s host, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be at his first summit since he was elected president of Turkey in August 2014. Erdogan will chair the OIC until the next summit.
Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani will also attend his first OIC summit after he succeeded his father as the leader of the Gulf state on June 25, 2013.
Hassan Rouhani, who became the president of Iran in August 2013, will also be at his first OIC summit.
Other heads of state to make their first appearance at the Pan-Islamic conference are Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who was sworn in as the president of Burkina Faso in December 2015, and Mamnoon Hussain, who was elected president of Pakistan on September 9, 2013, Saudi news site Sabq reported.
The seventh leader is Mustafa Akinci, the 67-year-old former mayor and veteran politician who gained 60.38 per cent of the votes in April last year to become the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The TRNC is has an observer status within the OIC.
The OIC is the second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations and has 57 countries as its members and spread over four continents.
The OIC, headquartered in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, holds a summit every three years and the council of foreign ministers convenes every year.
According to the Turkish media, all members of the OIC have sent delegates, with many represented by their heads of state, to the summit held under the theme “Unity and Solidarity for Justice and Peace”.
Topics to be discussed include ways “to channel the resources of the Islamic world to address the rising threats of Islamophobia and sectarianism, along with resolving the current situations in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, and others”.
