Strengthening the OIC’s Role in an Uncertain Geopolitical Landscape

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has chosen a new secretary-general at a moment the article describes as especially dangerous for Palestine and the future of a two-state solution. Ismaïl Ould Cheikh, a Mauritanian diplomat and politician, was selected unanimously at an emergency meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Jeddah on Aug. 27, 2026.

Ould Cheikh brings extensive United Nations experience to the post. He served as the U.N. special envoy for Yemen and led the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy office there from April 2015 to February 2018. Before that, he served as deputy special representative and deputy head of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya, as well as deputy head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. He later served as Mauritania’s foreign minister from June 2018 to March 2022.

The article places Palestine at the top of the new secretary-general’s agenda. It says Israel’s government, backed by right-wing forces, continues policies aimed at expanding settlements and annexing more Palestinian land, including through the construction of new settlements and settlement cities. Palestinians continue to suffer, while their presence on their own land faces growing threats.

In the author’s view, international inability to stop what it calls Israel’s “inhumane policy” makes statements of condemnation and rejection insufficient, even when they carry political importance. The Muslim world, the article argues, must intensify its efforts, unify its position and pursue practical, concrete measures to defend the Palestinian cause, which it describes as central to the organization’s founding.

The article also asks how Indonesia should help sharpen the OIC’s role. It calls for renewed consideration of the organization’s original goal of forming a “qualitative bloc” as global dynamics and geopolitics become increasingly uncertain.