OIC Suspends Syria despite Iran’s Rejection
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Wednesday Syria, in a move hailed early Thursday by the United States as one that sends "a strong message" to Damascus.
A statement issued at the end of an OIC summit in the Saudi holy city of Mecca said 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."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the "OIC sent a strong message to al-Assad regime by suspending Syria's membership in the OIC," Nuland said from Washington.
The emergency summit of the world's largest Islamic bloc opened late Tuesday with the suspension proposal put forward by a preparatory meeting of foreign ministers, a symbolic attempt to pile pressure on Damascus over its deadly crackdown on a 17-month uprising.
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 Mohamed Morsi 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.
Saudi King Abdullah presided over the meeting, attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose country has openly criticized the push to suspend Syria.
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.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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