General Assembly Sixty-first session Agenda items 13 and 14 The situation in the Middle East Question of Palestine Security Council Sixty-second year Letter dated 9 February 2007 from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations addressed to the SecretaryGeneral In may capacity as Chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Group at the United Nations in New York, I have the honour to transmit herewith a statement issued by the OIC Group on 8 February 2007 concerning the grave situation in occupied East Jerusalem (see annex). I should be grateful if the present letter and its annex were to be urgently distributed as a document of the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, under agenda items 13 and 14, and of the Security Council. (Signed) Agshin Mehdiyev Ambassador Permanent Representative Annex to the letter dated 9 February 2007 from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General Statement issued by the Ambassadorial Level Meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Group to the United Nations on 8 February 2007 The OIC Group at the United Nations in New York met on 8 February 2007, at the Ambassadorial level, to consider the grave situation in occupied East Jerusalem, as a result of Israeli aggression against the Holy City and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and issued the following statement: The OIC Group at the United Nations in new York expresses its strong condemnation of Israel’s heinous aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy City of Al-Quds Al-Shareef by demolishing a historic road connecting Bab Al-Maghariba with the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, in addition to two rooms adjacent to Al-Buraq Wall. The OIC Group also condemns Israel’s continued excavation works beneath the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, undermining its foundations and threatening it with collapse. The OIC Group considers these acts and measures taken by Israel, the occupying Power, a provocation to the feelings and sentiments of more than one billion Muslims in the world. The OIC Group denounces Israel’s continued policy in denying Palestinian worshippers access to their religious sites. The OIC Group stresses that these Israeli provocative actions are not the first of their kind. Since 1968, the Security Council has adopted 16 resolutions, particularly resolution 465 (1980), and has repeatedly declared that measures and arrangements taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which aim at changing the legal status, demographic composition and character of the City of Al-Quds Al-Shareef are null and void and without any legal validity whatsoever, Further more, the Security Council has repeatedly reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem. The OIC Group stresses that Israel, the occupying Power, by escalating its aggression against Al-Quds Al-Shareef, and creating new facts on the ground, raises doubts over its seriousness to resume the peace process which aims at achieving a just settlement of the Palestinian question, seriously threatens all efforts exerted to revive the political process, and aborts any possibility for negotiations on the final status issues, particularly the issue of Al-Quds Al-Shareef. The OIC Group, reaffirming the centrality of the cause of Al-Quds Al-Shareef for the whole Islamic Ummah, affirms the firm position of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, for which the cause of Palestine and Al-Quds Al-Shareef was the raison d’être, on the preservation of the Arab and holy characters of the City of Al-Quds Al-Shareef. The OIC Group, emphasizing the need to prevent further escalation in the situation in the region, calls upon the Security Council, as the body responsible for maintaining international peace and security, to take immediate and urgent action in order to bring an end to Israeli intransigence and violations against the blessed AlAqsa Mosque and Al-Quds Al-Shareef, and to guarantee Israel’s respect for the Council’s resolutions and for international law, particularly international humanitarian law.   sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/61/736 sss2 \* MERGEFORMAT S/2007/76 sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/61/736 sss2 \* MERGEFORMAT S/2007/76 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 07-23447 \* MERGEFORMAT 2 \* MERGEFORMAT 3 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 07-23447 United Nations A/61/736–S/2007/76 General Assembly Security Council Distr.: General 9 February 2007 Original: English jobn \* MERGEFORMAT 07-23447 (E) 120207 Barcode \* MERGEFORMAT *0723447*