New OIC Secretary-General’s Term Begins
The General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation held a farewell ceremony on Sunday 29 December 2013 in honour of the Secretary General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, whose tenure ends tomorrow on 31 December 2013.
The ceremony which was held in Jeddah also welcomed the Secretary General-elect Mr. Iyad Ameen Madani, who assumed office on 1 January 2014.
During the ceremony, Ihsanoglu thanked all those who assisted him in his task in the service of the Islamic Ummah, noting that his work focused on the trust he carried from the day he was elected as the OIC Secretary General. He also said that his watch was always on Jeddah time throughout the 62 times he traveled around the world, because his thoughts and mind were always fixed on the work going on in the General Secretariat.
Ihsanoglu added that he and his colleagues did their best to improve the organization and upgrade its status to the league of influential international organizations. He then remarked that his successor, Madani, would carry the General Secretariat the way he had done and even better. He ended his remarks by saying that his concerns for the Muslim world will never cease, and therefore placed his capabilities and experiences at the disposal of the OIC at all times.
For his part, Madani stated that the nine years during which Ihsanoglu served as Secretary General witnessed tangible improvements for the Organisation, in addition to visibility at international fora and a better handling of its administration and logistics. Like all other organisations, the OIC, he said, has seen close to five decades in existence, full of volatile events.
Source: World Bulletin
