Bangladesh too walked out from Morocco conference over Israel’s presence: Ministry

Some quarters have been misinterpreting an instant walkout by some delegates from the speech of the Israeli delegate at the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakesh of Morocco on 18 February 2025, Bangladesh's foreign ministry said today (21 February).

"This is to inform that the Bangladesh delegation was also among the countries that walked out," the ministry said in a statement.

"Bangladesh's position on the Palestinian cause and Israeli genocide and other repressions of the Palestinians is well known," it added.

The ministry requested all concerned to refrain from spreading misinformation about this particular situation.

The foreign ministry statement did not clarify what 'misinterpretation or misinformation' was being spread about the matter.

However, the statement comes amid claims by some netizens, including journalists, that Bangladesh did not walk out of the protest. 

"On 18 February 2025, when an Israeli minister began her speech at an international Road Safety Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco —representatives from Turkey, Jordan, and Ireland walked out of the conference hall in protest of the country's [Israel] brutality in Palestine. But [present] at the same meeting, Bangladeshi representatives just stood there looking, instead of following them," Zulkarnain Saer, a senior producer at Al Jazeera English, claimed in a Facebook post on his profile at 1:28am today, sharing a YouTube link of a report by Middle East Eye on the incident.

"Today, when Middle East Eye, a popular news outlet focused on the Middle East and Africa, published a video on this subject on their YouTube channel, many viewers commented condemning the aloof behaviour of the Bangladesh delegation," Saer also wrote in his post.

According to a report by The New Arab, several diplomats staged a walkout on 18 February at the global conference in Morocco, protesting the presence of Israel's transportation minister, Miri Regev, whose visit has reignited tensions over the North African Kingdom's ties with Israel.

Regev had arrived in Marrakesh on the day to attend the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety after a Moroccan court rejected an appeal by lawyers seeking to bar her from entering the country.

The lawsuit cited her alleged involvement in war crimes against Palestinians.

As she spoke at the Palais des Congrès on Tuesday evening, representatives from Bangladesh Turkey, Jordan, Ireland, and the Palestinian Authority walked out in protest.

The report does not mention Bangladesh's name among those who walked out.

However, diplomats from some Gulf states, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, remained in the hall, reports Israeli media Channel 12.