‘World is bigger than five,’ says Turkish President Erdogan, criticizing five permanent members of UN Security Council
The fate of the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims is no longer in the hands of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur Summit in the Malaysian capital, Erdogan reiterated that the world is bigger than five, referring to the five permanent UN Security Council members, whose veto power could prove catastrophic for smaller nations.
At the opening ceremony, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as well as the host, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, delivered speeches.
Turkish President Erdogan
“The world is bigger than five” is a famous slogan repeatedly used by Erdogan to criticize the permanent council members — China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.
Erdogan also said that Turkey did not bow to pressure to silence it, including a coup attempt, economic terror and slander.
“As they try to silence Turkey, we insist on calling attention to Palestine, Gaza, the Rohingya, Libya, Somalia and Syria,” he stressed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a veiled criticism against the OIC, telling the conference that the platform that brings the Muslim world together was besieged by a “lack of implementation.”
“We still haven’t made any progress regarding the Palestinian cause, we still can’t stop the exploitation of our resources, we still can’t say ‘stop’ to the fragmentation of the Muslim world over sectarianism, that’s why,” said Erdogan.
Muslims account for 94% of worldwide conflict with one out of three arms sold globally finding its way to the Middle East, he said. “The Muslims are using their resources for armament and for conflict and while doing so they are enriching the Western arm dealers,” he added.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
Speaking at the official opening ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur Summit, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad pointed out that the Muslim world is passing through “a state of crisis” and noted that the summit “may find solutions, if not to end these catastrophes, at least to awaken the Islamic world, the Ummah, to the need to recognize the problems and their causes.”
“Understanding the problems and their causes may enlighten us on the way to overcome or mitigate disasters that have befallen the Ummah,” he added.
Mahathir, who is also chairman of the summit, said the objective of this year’s event is “not to discuss religion, but the state of affairs in the Muslim world.”
“We all know that the Muslims, their religion and their countries are in a state of crisis. Everywhere, we see Muslim countries being destroyed, their citizens forced to flee their countries, forced to seek refuge in non-Muslim countries. Many thousands died during their flight, and many more were refused asylum,” he said.
“We are attempting to start small. And if these ideas, proposals and solutions are acceptable and prove to be workable, then we hope to take it up to the larger platform for consideration.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and hundreds of government officials, businesspeople, representatives of civil societies and experts from different sectors across the Muslim world are participating in the three-day summit in different levels.
“We are not discriminating, or isolating anyone. We are attempting to start small in moving forward towards solving our problems,” Mahathir added.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday urged Muslim nations to deepen financial and trade cooperation to fight what he described as U.S. economic hegemony, using an Islamic conference in Malaysia as a platform to decry American sanctions against his country.
Rouhani repeated his assertion that the U.S. has used economic sanctions as the “main tools of domineering hegemony and bullying” of other nations.
Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar
One of the most important sources of instability in our region is the neutralization and marginalization of the international legitimacy, and the attempt to dictate the will of the occupation by of force in Palestine, where annexation and settlement policies, including the Judaization of Jerusalem, continue. These are the policies that wipe out the Arab character of the city and provoke the feelings of Arabs and Muslims everywhere.
What disturbs the Arab and Islamic public opinion and a large part of the global public opinion regarding the cause of Palestine is that it is an unresolved issue of settler colonialism.
The Arabs have accepted a settlement through the Arab Peace Initiative and showed great willingness to cooperate with the international community for a just solution to the Palestinian issue, but the party that refuses to comply with the international will and international law, and rejects the fair peace offer, even if relatively, is Israel.
We suffer from double standards in more than one issue. There are double standards even in dealing with human rights, and the global conflict of axes makes some harbor war criminals who have perpetrated crimes against their own peoples, as allies, while being fought by others. However, situations may alter with the change of locations and interests.
Double standards also prevail in the case of armed militias that commit terrorist acts. Some forget their eloquence against terrorism and terrorists when they harbor armed militias that operate against domestic and international law and commit crimes against civilians.
Hundreds of government officials, businessmen, representatives of civil societies and experts from different sectors across the Muslim world are taking part in the summit.
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