FM to represent Iran in OIC meeting on Mali

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi left Tehran for Jeddah on Sunday to attend a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the crisis in Mali. The foreign ministers of the OIC contact group on Mali are due to discuss the crisis in Mali and confer on ways to help settle the problems in the African country. Before leaving Tehran, Salehi said he will brief the participants on Iran's viewpoints about the crisis in Mali, and will also hold meetings with a number of officials of the OIC member states. On February 1, Amnesty International said "serious human rights breaches" - including the killing of children - were occurring in the French war in Mali. Chaos broke out in the West African country after Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012. The coup leaders said they mounted the coup in response to the government's inability to contain the Tuareg rebellion in the North of the country, which had been going on for two months. However, in the wake of the coup d'état, the Tuareg rebels took control of the entire Northern desert region, but the Ansar Dine extremists then pushed them aside and took control of the region, which is larger than France or Texas.