Foreign Ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) member-states convened in the Pakistani capital on 19 December to discuss solutions for Afghanistan’s current humanitarian situation, emphasizing the need to provide aid for the war-torn country.

Those present at the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC stressed the need to save Afghanistan from its current political and economic collapse by supporting it with humanitarian aid, as well as trying to support the formation of a government that ensures the country’s stability.

During his speech Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the passage of days has increased the dimensionality of the Afghan crisis and that the country needed the aid and assistance of the Islamic World. 

He also called for the creation of an inter-Islamic monetary fund that would assist in securing aid from OIC member states to Afghanistan.

“We are witnessing instability and insecurity in this country with the tools of proxy wars and takfiri groups such as ISIS,” said Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, the Special Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan, during his speech. 

For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the Afghan economic crisis must be prevented by assisting Afghanistan’s financial sector and finding solutions to the liquidity issue. 

Pakistan also highlighted the repercussions of an economic collapse in Afghanistan, with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warning of a major influx of refugees from Afghanistan as a result of famine and extremism. 

According to a statement by the OIC, the organization will coordinate with the UN towards efforts to unfreeze billions in assets from the Afghani central bank frozen by the US. The statement also called for strengthening the role of the organizations’ missions in Afghanistan by supporting it financially and logistically in order to have full capacity in conducting humanitarian assistance operations. 

The OIC in its statement also vowed to form an international Islamic body to communicate with the Taliban on issues including tolerance, education equality, and women’s rights in Islam.