OIC appoints Yousef Aldobeay as its special envoy for J&K

June 4, 2019

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) appointed Yousef Aldobeay of Saudi Arabia as its special envoy for Jammu & Kashmir. The decision was taken at the 14th OIC Summit held in the holy city of Makkah, in Saudi Arabia.

Key Highlights

The 57-member grouping approved Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Aldobeay as its special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
The OIC extended their support for people of Jammu and Kashmir and towards achievement of their legitimate rights. They called upon India to hold a referendum in J&K under the United Nations’ patronage.
This decision to appoint a special envoy for J&K was mainly was of OIC contact group on Kashmir and several of OIC members were not party to this decision and maintained a neutral stance on this issue.
Background: In March 2019 India was invited for the first time as the guest of honour for the plenary session of the OIC foreign ministers’ meet held in at Abu Dhabi (in UAE). On that occasion, Pakistan initially tried to ‘disinvite’ India and later used every session to defame India but failed to get Jammu and Kashmir’s issue mentioned in final joint declaration of plenary session because the hosts and Saudi Arabia tried to ensure that their guest (India) was not embarrassed and stood solidly behind the country. These developments came within three months of the same OIC foreign ministers’ meet even when some of the key OIC member states across continents have not been in favour of a strong position on Kashmir.
Reason: Due to the current complicated political situation in West Asia particularly the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran which is coupled with the dependence of some key nations in region on Pakistan Army against Houthis and Iran might have possibly prompted the 57-member OIC grouping to appoint a special envoy for Kashmir.