MILF: Ambassador El-Masry invited to 35thGPH-MILF peace talks in KL

From the MILF Website (Jan 23): Ambassador El-Masry invited to 35thGPH-MILF peace talks in KL

Ambassador Sayed Kassem El-Masry has been invited to the 35th GPH-MILF Exploratory Talks in Kuala Lumpur on January 21-25. This was learned from a very reliable source, who requested anonymity but disclosed that the invitation was signed as usual by the Malaysian facilitator, Dato Tengku Ab’Ghafar bin Tengku Mohamed.

If he decides to attend, El-Masry, special envoy and adviser to the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), would be the second highest official of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to attend the peace talks in Kuala Lumpur.

Early last year, Ali Demirci, Director of the OIC Minorities Affairs Department, attended the peace talks, representing OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
In March 2012, the government and the MILF had agreed to approve the request of the Office of the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly Conference) to sit as observer in the 15-year old talks.

The approval of the OIC’s observer status, which was viewed as a giant step towards legitimizing and internationalizing the 16-year old negotiation, was contained in the Joint Statement signed by GPH panel chair Marvic Leonen and MILF panel chair Mohagher Iqbal with Malaysian facilitator Dato Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed.

Asked of his comment on the possible attendance of El-Masry, Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel secretariat, told Luwaran that this is crucial as he comes at the last stretch stage of the talks wherein the two parties are expected to exert all efforts to hurdle the remaining issues before they sign the comprehensive agreement anytime soon in Mindanao. “I welcome him with open arms; it is an honor to have been with us during the talks,” Mantawil added.

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