The Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), with 57 member nations, the second largest international organization in the world after the United Nations, met in Istanbul, Türkiye over June 21-22 this past weekend. Genocide in Gaza and Israel’s war against Iran were already at the top of their agenda, when the news hit on Saturday night, June 21, that the United States had bombed three of Iran’s nuclear facilities. After an emergency, closed-door session on Sunday, the final “Istanbul Statement” issued from the meeting, announced that the OIC had agreed “to establish an open-ended Ministerial Contact group, which will be tasked with establishing regular contacts with the relevant regional and international parties, in order to support de-escalation efforts, stop the aggression against Iran and achieve a peaceful settlement.”
A short statement also issued by the OIC General Secretariat called the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites “a dangerous escalation that could … threaten regional security, peace, and stability.” It reiterated the OIC’s June 13 statement, which, “condemning and denouncing the violation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as international laws and conventions—calls for de-escalation and self-restraint, taking resort to dialogue and returning to negotiations and peaceful means.”
The Istanbul meeting of some forty diplomats, the majority of them Ministers or Deputy Foreign Ministers, had been a center of diplomatic efforts from the get-go. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the full meeting on Saturday. He also met separately with Egyptian Foreign Minister Adbelatty, a prelude to a subsequent phone call between Egyptian President El Sisi and his Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian, their first since Israel’s bombing campaign began June 13. Adbelatty also called Donald Trump’s Special Negotiator Steve Witkoff after his meeting with Araghchi, their third discussion since Israel’s bombing campaign began. Egypt’s message to all, according to state daily Al Ahram, was that “there are no military solutions to the conflict between Israel and Iran;” and “peaceful settlement and political dialogue remain the only viable path to lasting peace and stability in the region.”
