Bangladesh has underlined the need for bringing a major reform to the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) for further strengthening the 57-country body and spread the benefits of the group to all Muslims across the world.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali put forward the proposal at the inaugural session of the two-day 45th Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) which began in Dhaka yesterday at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC).

"A number of countries [who are] not OIC members, have a large number of Muslims as their citizens. The Muslims may be minority in those countries but in terms of number they often exceed the total population of many OIC member countries," he said.

"There is a need to build bridges with those non-OIC countries, so that a large number of Muslim populations do not remain untouched by the good work of OIC. That is why, reforms and re-structure is critical for OIC," Ali said without naming any specific country.

However, diplomatic sources in Dhaka said he had indicated India's entry as an OIC Observer, with the country being the second largest country in the world in terms of population and houses over 180 million Muslims.

“As the world is changing in many ways infringing upon every area of a peaceful society, life, development, we cannot do the business as usual. We need to re-think our work, method and process of functioning to cater to the needs of the current era and beyond. Otherwise, we risk in situating our Organisation in redundancy,” the Bangladesh FM said.

BANGLADESH LOST IN OIC POLLS

Kazakh diplomat Askar Mussinov was elected the Assistant Secretary General for Science and Technology of OIC for Asia Group yesterday.

Kazakhstan's candidate Mosinav, who is currently serving as one of the directors at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah, bagged 12 votes while Bangladesh candidate Kamrul Ahsan, secretary (Bilateral and Consular) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got six votes.

SAUDI AND IRAN TUSSLE

Saudi Arabia and Iran conflict once again surfaced in the OIC foreign ministers meeting in Dhaka yesterday.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who delivered his speech in Arabic, condemned Iran for its meddling in the Arab region.

According to a senior diplomat of a Middle-Eastern country stationed in Dhaka the Saudi FM bitterly criticised Iran's role and alleged that it is seeking to create sectarian strife in the region.

He further accused its arch rival of supplying terrorist militias with ballistic missiles and explained the threat stemming from the ballistic missiles fired from Yemen that targeted various regions of the kingdom.

Sources at the meeting said Iran strongly protested and lodged reservation about the Saudi FM's speech at the inaugural session as well as during the finalisation of the agenda in the first working session of the CFM.

Meanwhile, the Saudi FM cancelled a press briefing scheduled at 1:50pm at the BICC Media Centre.