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Iran wants to host Middle East conference on Gaza Strip |
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Monday, 21 January 2008 |
Iran Focus
 Tehran, Iran, Jan. 21 – Iran said on Monday that it sought to host an emergency meeting of representatives of Middle Eastern countries over the situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Iran would like to host an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) over restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip by neighbouring Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini told reporters at his weekly press conference.
Tehran would be willing to attend such a meeting even if it was held elsewhere, Hosseini said.
On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urged the OIC to hold an emergency meeting at the Foreign Minister level, and accused Israel of committing “atrocities” in Gaza.
In June 2007, the radical Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
Senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) officials as well as neighbouring countries such as Egypt have accused Iran of helping Hamas to stage the military coup.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, member of the PLO executive committee, said in 2007, "Iran helped Hamas to lead a military coup against the legitimate Palestinian leadership and to control the Gaza Strip".
"Iran supports those hostile powers in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories in order to serve its regional interests on the expense of the peoples and nations of the region", said Abed Rabbo.
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