Israel's Attack On Gaza Raised At D-8 Foreign Ministers Meeting

From Zarul Effendi Razali

ISLAMABAD, Nov 21 (Bernama) -- Israel's aggression on Gaza was raised at the D-8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, here, Wednesday, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.

At the meeting which began at about 11am, local time, Anifah said some of the member countries had touched on the crisis in Gaza and that Malaysia would be voicing out their views after the meeting resumed this evening.

D-8 is an economic organisation which discusses economic matters involving the member states. However, due to the compelling circumstances, we may be discussing this issue," he told Malaysian reporters, here.

The D-8 member countries are Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

Anifah said some of the other member countries, in their speeches, expressed sadness over what was happening in Gaza.

"Malaysia will be raising the issue later and we have already agreed informally just now to discuss the issue," he said.

At the D-9 meeting this time, Pakistan will take over the chair from Nigeria for a period of two years until 2014.

Several matters were discussed at the meeting including accepting the motion on the D-8 Charter and D-8 Global Vision, which are two important documents containing the organisation's aspirations and vision for the future.

In his speech at the meeting, Anifah again touched on D-8 intra trade which has not met the target set, that is, 15 to 20 per cent.

"To date, the total D-8 intra trade is at 7.5 per cent. We need to look at the existing weaknesses in our effort to make D-8 a competitive organisation.

"We need to work at increasing investment and trade and we should be more creative, whereby Islamic banking is one of the activities that we should be proposing at this meeting," he said.

Anifah said the D-8 member states should be applying the Islamic banking system for the purpose of obtaining investment funds, through sukuk, besides using the conventional banking system.