Bangladesh is prepared to send its military forces to Saudi Arabia if its holy places come under threat, Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali said on Thursday. He however disagreed to accept that Bangladesh has joined the Saudi-led military alliance.

Mr. Ali was making a statement at a press conference in the Foreign Ministry about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia from May 20-23, when she will attend the Arab-Islamic-American Summit in Riyadh at the invitation of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who is undertaking the first ever visit to Saudi Arabia after taking office, will also join the summit that is to be attended by heads of Arab states, member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other Islamic countries.

In response to a question on whether the alliance with Saudi Arabian forces would be seen as Bangladesh’s stance against Iran, the Foreign Minister said that this is not an alliance. “It is at a premature stage. It is just evolving. It is in the discussion stage,” he said.

“We believe that the ongoing violent extremism, which is taking place in the Muslim world, should be brought to an end,” he said.

The Riyadh summit aims to establish a partnership in the Islamic world to combat extremism and terrorism, strengthen safety and sustainability, and expand values of coexistence and patience. Various issues, including counter-terrorism, the Palestine crisis, and ongoing geopolitical issues are expected to be under discussion.

“Govt to monitor journalists”

The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has sent a circulation to all the foreign missions, asking them to monitor the activities of the Bangladeshi journalists travelling abroad. The circular issued on Wednesday, said the foreign missions will have to monitor the activities of the journalists and report back to Dhaka.

The External Publicity Wing of Foreign Ministry also sent the instruction to media.

However, while talking to the media on Thursday, Foreign Minister Ali said, “Journalists will face no obstacle during their travel abroad and performing professional duties there.” He, however, said it is necessary to monitor whether anybody is doing anything while travelling abroad that goes against the country's image and interest.

The decision to monitor journalists was taken based on the recent recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee which said that the journalists should be monitored so that if their activities are found to be against the interest of the country, then mission can report it here.

The parliamentary committee has expressed its concern over the “spread of wrong information” about Bangladesh in the international arena due to the negative activities of the journalists travelling abroad. Sources said that the issue came up following the recent visit of Bangladeshi journalists to Pakistan at the invitation of Islamabad.