Kuwait affirms call to suspend Israeli Knesset from int’l union

PUIC elects Senegalese Speaker

TEHRAN, Jan 18, (KUNA): Kuwaiti lawmakers have reiterated calls to suspend Israel’s Knesset from the InterParliamentary Union and expressed their full support for the Palestinians at a conference here on Wednesday.

The calls were made in light of the legal cover the Israeli parliament provides its government, which continues its “breaches and arrogant, arbitrary and violent practices against the Palestinian people, even minors,” MP Awda Al-Ruwaei told fellow Islamic lawmakers.

The Kuwaiti people stand behind the calls made by Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim at the last IPU talks late last year, the Kuwaiti lawmaker said at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Parliamentary Union (PUIC) conference.

“Islamic delegations bear the responsibility of making plans aimed at achieving something tangible, and delivering a message to the world that the Zionist entity’s actions on Palestinian land are ‘unacceptable’.

“The ethnic cleansing and torture being carried out against the Palestinians has only increased their dignity and pride, and the occupation over the years has not been able to wipe out this identity,” he said.

The PUIC, at the conclusion of its 13th session, called to repeal Israel’s membership in the IPU in the wake of Tel Aviv’s challenges against international laws, and condemned US President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

It called upon OIC member countries bearing any ties to Israel to “freeze these relationships” until the American administration backs down from its “wrongful” decision.

Meanwhile, participants in the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC) meeting on Tuesday elected without contest the Senegalese Speaker Moustapha Niasse as the union secretary general for a four-year mandate.

Niasse, the sole candidate of the African group, was elected after the Sudanese delegation withdrew their nominee, in line with the union by law (number 16), stipulating rotation on geographical grounds for electing or choosing a general secretary.

Dr Odah Al-Ruwaiee, head of the Kuwaiti delegation, stressed in a statement during the voting session, on observing the geographic rotation principle, enshrined in the union constituent law.

The secretary general’s mandate lasts for four years; renewable once, provided that the nominee must be from a non-host country.