Foreign Minister leaves for Saudi Arabia

Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman left for Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on his maiden foreign tour since assuming office to attend an OIC Foreign Ministers-level meeting in Jeddah on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister’s Adviser Humayun Kabir is accompanying the Foreign Minister during the visit, foreign ministry's official sources said.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an emergency meeting of its Open-ended Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers on Thursday at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah.

The meeting will discuss recent decisions of the Israeli occupation authorities aimed at promoting settlement expansion, annexation and attempts to impose alleged Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.

According to the OIC, the emergency session seeks to coordinate member states' positions and deliberate on possible courses of action in response to what it termed invalid measures, including the latest decision to initiate procedures to settle lands in the occupied West Bank under the designation of "state property".

The move is viewed as part of broader efforts to alter the legal, political and demographic status of the occupied Palestinian Territory and undermine the prospects of a two-state solution.