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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| OIC suspends SyriaÂ’s membership | |
| 2012-08-17 | |
MAKKAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended SyriaÂ’s membership early on Thursday at a summit of Muslim leaders in Makkah, citing President Bashar AssadÂ’s violent suppression of the Syrian revolt.
The move had been approved on Monday at a preliminary meeting of OIC foreign ministers and was agreed on the summit’s second night despite opposition from Iran. The two-day emergency solidarity summit was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in the holy city of Makkah. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah presided over the meeting, attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose country has openly criticized the push to suspend Syria. Participants had agreed on “the need to end immediately the acts of violence in Syria and to suspend that country from the OIC.” The final statement said there had been “deep concern at the massacres and inhuman acts suffered by the Syrian people.” OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a news conference the decision sent “a strong message from the Muslim world to the Syrian regime.” “This world can no longer accept a regime that massacres its people using planes, tanks and heavy artillery,” he added. It was “also a message to the international community stating that the Muslim world backs a peaceful solution (in Syria), wants an end to the bloodshed and refuses to let the problem degenerate into a religious conflict and spill over” into the wider region, Ihsanoglu said. The move by the OIC, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, is aimed at further isolating Assad’s embattled regime. Syria was suspended from the Arab League last year over its clampdown on the uprising that Assad characterized as a plot by Western and rival powers to overthrow his regime. The meeting called for the “immediate implementation of the transitional peace plan and the development of a peaceful mechanism that would allow building a new Syrian state based on pluralism, democratic and civilian system.” It also urged the UN Security Council to “assume fully its responsibility by stopping the ongoing violence and bloodshed in Syria and finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the Syrian crisis.” The participants also stressed “the principal responsibility of the Syrian government for the continuation of violence and bloodshed.” Algeria, Pakistan and Kazakhstan had called for the final statement of the summit, to which Damascus was not invited, to also pin blame on the armed opposition for the bloodshed in Syria, according to informed sources at the summit. And Egypt’s President Muhammad Mursi proposed the formation of a committee grouping his country with key players Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to try to find a settlement to the Syrian conflict, a delegate had said. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday criticized the move to suspend Syria’s membership of the OIC, saying it would not resolve the conflict and was not in line with the group’s charter. However, a source close to the participants told AFP that the Islamic Republic which had repeatedly voiced support to its Damascus ally met the decision with a “soft reaction.” Iran’s president had avoided mention of the Syrian conflict in a 55-minute speech on Tuesday night. “There has been a clear change in the Iranian position toward Syria,” according to a diplomat at the Makkah summit. In a conciliatory move, King Abdullah proposed on Tuesday setting up a center in Riyadh for dialogue between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites. In a second statement called the “Makkah Pact,” the participants proclaimed their support for “Muslim people who are oppressed like the Syrian people.” It underlined the summit’s support for “the oppressed Muslim peoples... who face the combat aircraft and heavy guns of the regular armies as is the case of the Syrian people.” The statement backed cooperation between Muslim states, the fight against divisions between Muslims, promotion of “moderate” Islam and the “fight against terrorism and the thinking behind it.” | |
| Posted by:Steve White |