Iraqi PM To Visit Cairo For Summit Of Islamic States

 Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will lead a delegation to Cairo on Tuesday to attend the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an official newspaper reported.

“Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will arrive in Cairo on Tuesday noon to participate the two-day OIC summit,” the state-run al- Sabah newspaper quoted the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying.

Zebari, who’s already in Cairo for the meeting of the foreign ministers of Islamic countries, told the paper that Maliki will carry out a number of bilateral meetings with the OIC’s delegation leaders.

“We will also arrange a meeting (for Maliki) with the Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to discuss the bilateral ties between the two countries,” Zebari said.

The OIC summit will be held in Cairo on Wednesday and Thursday. The summit is expected to discuss topics which are important for the Islamic world, including islamophobia, Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories and the situation in Syria and Mali.

The upcoming summit will be the first one since the Egyptian unrest broke out, and also the first one hosted by Egypt since the establishment of the organization in 1969.

Some 56 Islamic countries will participate the summit.

Xinhuanet