KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — Malaysia’s former foreign minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar has poured cold water on a proposal for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to form a military alliance to fight the Zionist government of Israel, as a show of support to the under siege Palestine in the Gaza Strip.
He said any conflict involving OIC members is solely the responsibility of the country itself as the founding principle of the organisation established in 1969 was merely based on friendly cooperation, Utusan Malaysia reported today.
“The OIC countries cannot have a military alliance because they are buying infantry equipment from Britain.
“It is impossible that we can use the equipment to ‘massacre’ or attack allies who are friendly with the country itself,” he was quoted as saying.
Britain is seen as an ally to Israel, which has been carrying out daily bombardments against Hamas-led Palestine since October and killed and wounded tens of thousands in the Gaza Strip barring a very brief four-day truce last month.
Syed Hamid was commenting on the proposal widely shared on X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter, calling on the OIC to form a military alliance to take on Israel and defend Palestine.
He added that two-thirds of the OIC members are underdeveloped countries that lack sufficient funds to buy weapons.
“Most of the member countries are undeveloped, backward countries and have no ‘fulus’ (money).
“For that reason, (Palestine) needs to have a space of freedom and produce its own weapons to fight the Israeli Zionists. Looking at today the fact is Israel has already lost because it failed to capture Northern Gaza after more than a month of attacks,” he was quoted as saying.
Syed Hamid said that the Hamas fighters have long wanted to free the Palestinian nation from the occupation of immigrants (Israeli Zionists) who brag about genocidal crimes and the apartheid system.
“The question is not that the Palestinians want to remove the Jews (from Gaza), the question is to drive out the Israeli Zionists who always feel that they are a special race.
“Israel is the real terrorist including the United States. Not to mention the two-state solution proposed by the West. I could never agree to that,” he was quoted as saying.
Malaysia is one of the 57 member countries of the OIC that is headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Malaysia has also firmly stated its support of Palestine.
