OIC General Secretary Resigns

Cairo, 1 Safar 1438/1 November 2016 (MINA) – The secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Bin Amin Madani has resigned from his post for health reasons, a statement on the OIC’s official website read on Monday.

The resignation of the OIC secretary general comes only few days after Egypt said it is to reconsider its relationship with the Secretariat of the Organization and its Secretary General following Madani’s “regrettable” and “grave transgression” comments about Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Ahram reported.

During comments last week at an OIC conference hosted by Tunisia, the OIC secretary general mistakenly read out Tunisian President Essebsi’s name as El-Sisi.

In an attempt to correct his mistake, Madani made a joke telling Tunisia’s Essebsi “This is a terrible mistake, I’m sure that your fridge has more than water [unlike El-Sisi’s] Mr. President.”

A few days earlier, at a youth conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, the Egyptian President told the audience “[I’m] one of you, I swear, for ten years, my fridge only had water and no one heard my voice and I’m not from a rich family.”

The populist-considered statement was said as an effort to maintain the stability of Egypt from a possible next coup.

The OIC released a statement on Friday in which Madani apologised for his comments, which he said were “humour and didn’t intend to offend, in any way, the Egyptian leadership represented by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.”

The OIC’s apology statement also added that Madani respects El-Sisi whom he has met once before.

Madani, 70, is a Saudi Arabian diplomat who served as the country’s information minister, among other official posts, before his stint on the Saudi-based OIC.(T/R04/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)