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KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia has said an emergency meeting of key Muslim countries this week will call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East and discuss a formal United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
Malaysia is currently the chair of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), whose executive committee will meet in the country's administrative centre of Putrajaya on Thursday.
"We want a UN peacekeeping force," Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.
"We will also urge that such a force include the participation of Islamic nations," he said.
Syed Hamid said the meeting would condemn the Israeli offensive in Lebanon and that 10 to 12 countries, mostly represented by their leaders, were expected to attend.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey would be among them, he said.
Malaysia has said it is considering sending a peacekeeping force to the Lebanon-Israel border once the UN Security Council decides on a proposal to dispatch troops to the area.
The mainly-Muslim country has also strongly condemned Israel's campaign in Lebanon and Gaza as excessive.
"Israel is equally bound by international norms and values. The right of self-defence is not carte blanche for you to do anything you like and to commit mass killings," Syed Hamid said.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda on Monday said the OIC would send humanitarian relief to the Middle East.
- AFP /ct
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