Answer by Maria Zakharova, Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the question from RIA Novosti regarding another the results of the 40th session of the OIC FMC

Question: On the 9-11 December sessions of the 40th session of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation were held in Conakry. What is your assessment of its results?

Answer: 40th FMC session adopted HR and managerial decisions related to the replacement of the chief of the General Secretariat. As of 1 January 2014 the OIC General Secretariat will be headed by a representative of Saudi Arabia Iyad Madani.

The situation in Syria was one of the central topics of the general political discussion. Muslim states provide different evaluation to the events in this country, and differences in their approaches were reflected in the session resolution devoted to the Syrian crisis. The main thing is that the OIC spoke in favour of conduct of the international conference on Syria in Geneva. The attempts of some members of the Organisation to transfer the place of Syria in the OIC, which was earlier announced as vacant, to representatives of the Syrian opposition have failed.

Ministers of OIC member states drew close attention to the situation in the African continent, approved the resolution decisively denouncing terrorist actions in the Sahara-Sahel region and announced support to international efforts to combat this threat.

Russia participated in the 40th OIC FMC session as an observer. Our delegation was headed by the Ambassador-at-large Konstantin Shuvalov.