Iran’s response to OIC measured, astute: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Shabbir Hassanally, an activist and Islamic scholar in London, about Iran dismissing as “unacceptable” the recent statement by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), saying it runs counter to principles of the UN Charter, the OIC Charter and international law.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let’s jump right in. I would like to get your thoughts first of all on the statement of the OIC and also the response that Iran has given in that regard as well.  

Hassanally: First of all I think Iran has given extremely measured and astute response and I think that the OIC has really capitulated to the will of the country of its terrain which is of course the family of Saud which is not really a country; it is just a family that occupies Arabia or Hejaz.

It is remarkable that the OIC which calls itself the Organization of Islamic Conference does nothing to condemn the Zionists, does nothing to condemn Saudi for all the sectarian problems it is creating in Syria, all the murder it is doing in Yemen but it chooses to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran which has constantly been fighting all of this sedition and resisting all of this injustice and it is very revealing that the OIC has done this because again it shows that a lot of these so-called international organizations have been infected and infiltrated by people who have the veneer of being a Muslim, being Islamic but actually are really just Zionists in disguise who are serving the Zionist agenda.

So sadly a number of us have always thought the OIC is a bit of a …, to put it politely, farcical organization much like the United Nations and other such international “bodies” and this statement by the OIC in the Jeddah meeting is essentially evidence to that if such evidence was even needed but I think the Islamic Republic of Iran has been extremely measured and extremely calm in the way it has been dealing with this. It is a sort of pressure that has been brought down on Iran following the success of the nuclear negotiations and the implementation of the nuclear deal has been unprecedented.

I mean it has exposed the hypocrisy of the rest of the world especially the Zionist occupied United States and these Arab countries, so-called Arab oil fields and shopping malls with flags for all of the effort that they are putting in to try and destroy this historic deal. So unfortunately it is not surprising that OIC has said this and again [the] Islamic Republic of Iran has as always been extremely measured, astute and appropriate in its response.

Press TV: You touched upon an issue I would like to explain more on the inconsistency of meetings and gatherings like this. How come the OIC in the matter of this extraordinary conference that it had, it has not convened to slam the Israeli crimes and violations in al-Quds and also are you surprised that there was absolutely no mention of the execution of Sheikh Nimr in this meeting?

Hassanally: Again maybe it is a cynic in me but it does not surprise me that OIC was convened primarily, they might have discussed a few things here and there but it was primarily convened to sort of massage the ego of the Saudi family that is feeling the heat. The OIC was convened, this meeting of the OIC was convened regardless of what they might say formally and officially, it was convened for no other reason than to massage the ego of this Saudi Zionist family.  

Evidence for this is the statement that came out at the end of it and as you rightly said the fact that it said nothing not even a whisper about the massacres that the Zionists are doing in Palestine, nothing about what the Saudi family is doing in Saudi itself, in Arabia and nothing about Yemen, nothing of substance about Yemen, nothing about what is happening in Syria, in Iraq, nothing.

[They say] we must condemn Iran because some Iranians got upset and they decided to cause problems in the embassy. The Islamic Republic of Iran has condemned those tragic and unfortunate events following the assassination of Sheikh Nimr that happened in Mashhad against the embassy of Saudi in Mashhad and Tehran. [The] Islamic Republic of Iran has condemned it to the highest level, even Imam Khamenei, the Leader, has condemned it and the people behind it have been arrested. So what more do they want the Islamic Republic of Iran to do? At the end of the day, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been exemplary in how it has dealt with this and it has not allowed people’s emotions to damage diplomatic protocol and the rule of law whereas Saudi has done what?  

Saudi in 1987, they murdered a whole lot of Iranians, explicitly they murdered them, there is evidence now to show that when people were shot on the bridge in the Mina area, that was deliberate. We know that just recently in the last Hajj we know that it was because of these children, these illiterate children, these Saudi children driving in with  … cars, they created problems, they created the stampede and many, many people died and who has been held accountable for that? Nothing. They won’t even say the right number of people that died. They keep this, stuck on this tiny number that they keep talking about.

Thirdly, when the Saudis arrested Sheikh Nimr for speaking only, when they arrested Mohammed Nimr or Ali al-Nimr for tweeting, when their body is in Bahrain arrest people like Nabeel Rajab and Zainab Khawaja and others for doing what, for tweeting, the OIC, where is the OIC, where are all of these organizations? They are sitting there with their hands firmly underneath their legs, not interested in saying anything. But when you get a handful of people who got extremely upset, rightly so, the action they did was wrong but them getting upset was correct, it was valid. They got upset and they did something they should not have done and they were dealt with. They were not just allowed to continue doing it, they were arrested, they will now be prosecuted, they will be sentenced accordingly. [The] Islamic Republic of Iran has done its duty. Let’s someone ask this Saudi family …, let’s someone ask these people to account. Let’s see if the Organization of Islamic Conference, OIC, is actually an Islamic organization or is it the organization of the Israeli conference, which is probably what it should be called.  

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