| Fourth Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Host country |  Saudi Arabia | |
| Cities | Mecca | |
The Fourth Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit was a conference organised by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Mecca on 14 and 15 August 2012. [1] The venue of the conference was Al Safa Palace. [2]
The summit was organised in response to the increased violence as a result of the Syrian civil war. [1]
Nearly all member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation took part in the summit. [3] However, Syria was not invited to participate in the conference. [4] Amongst the participants were host leader king Abdullah, Turkish president Abdullah Gul, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Jordan's king Abdullah, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Palestine's Mahmoud Abbas, Malaysia's Najib Razak, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and Bangladesh's Zillur Rahman. [5]
Discussions centred on Syria and preventing the spread of sectarian unrest that began to be experienced in the region. [6] The king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah, proposed the establishment of a center for dialogue in order to address the sectarian unrest in the region. [7] It was reported that the center would be established in Riyadh. [8] During the summit, Abdullah called for a dialogue among eight sects: the Sunni Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali and the Shia Ja'fari, Zaidi, al-Abazi and al-Zahiri, which exist in the Persian Gulf region, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and Iraq. [9]
On 16 August 2012, the summit was closed with a call for more unity among Muslim countries and the need to avoid divisive tendencies. [8] The joint decision of the summit was the suspension of Syria's membership. [7] [10] This move was opposed by Iran and Algeria. [11] Both the proposal to establish a dialogue center and its planned headquarter were included in the closing statement of the summit. The closing statement also focused on the question of Palestine, stating it as the central cause of the Islamic Ummah. [12]
Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid Muallem stated that the decision over the suspension of Syria's membership was a clear violation of the OIC's charter. [4] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi argued in Mecca on 16 August 2012 that the suspension was an unjust move and that Iran did not support this decision. [13] The U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland commented that the decision over the suspension supports the Syrians and their struggles, and increases the international isolation of the Assad government. [13]
The history of Saudi Arabia as a nation state began with the emergence of the Al Saud dynasty in central Arabia in 1727 and the subsequent establishment of the Emirate of Diriyah. Pre-Islamic Arabia, the territory that constitutes modern Saudi Arabia, was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations; the prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states, with 48 being Muslim-majority countries. The organisation states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony".
The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The council's main headquarters is located in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The Charter of the GCC was signed on 25 May 1981, formally establishing the institution.
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Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 until his abdication on 2 November 1964. During his reign, he served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1954 and from 1960 to 1962. Prior to his accession, Saud was the country's crown prince from 11 May 1933 to 9 November 1953. He was the second son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia.
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The Arab Union is a theoretical political union of the Arab states. The term was first used when the British Empire promised the Arabs a united independent state in return for revolting against the Ottoman Empire, with whom Britain was at war. It never came to fruition following the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Despite this, many in the Arab world have since called for the creation of a pan-Arab state. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser made several unsuccessful attempts to unite Egypt with other Arab countries, and briefly succeeded in forming the United Arab Republic with Syria in 1958, which dissolved in 1971. Similar attempts were made by other Arab leaders, such as Hafez al-Assad, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Faisal I of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Gaafar Nimeiry and Anwar Sadat.
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