Makkah summit aims to shore up Muslim strength
 

JEDDAH: In the most significant outcome of the two-day Islamic solidarity summit that begins in Makkah today, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) late last night agreed to suspend Syria in view of Bashar Assad regime’s unrelenting bloodbath against its own people.
The suspension completes the discredited Syrian leader’s total isolation in the Muslim world.
“Yes, the resolution to suspend Syria from the OIC was adopted by a majority vote during the meeting (of the Council of Foreign Ministers at the Conference Palace) ... Everyone was relieved,” OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Arab News. “This is what most of the members wanted, and there was very little opposition to the move.”
Ihsanoglu appealed to Assad to listen to the collective voice of the Muslim world. “I would like to tell him that it is the duty of leaders to sacrifice for their people ... He should leave for the sake of his own people,” he said.
The Syrian crisis earlier dominated discussions at the preparatory meeting of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers at the Conference Palace in Jeddah.
Foreign ministers from more than 50 mostly Muslim countries were giving final touches to the resolutions to be adopted at the summit.
It is at the invitation of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah that presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of the world’s leading Muslim nations have converged on Saudi Arabia.
The foreign ministers discussed a number of proposals, issues and challenges that confront the Muslim world during a closed-door session.
Possible solutions to the tragedy of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and united response to Israel’s nefarious attempt to erase the history surrounding Al-Quds Al-Shareef and the targeting of the Islamic identity of Masjid Al-Aqsa were under discussion at the meeting.
In the absence of Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, who is convalescing in a hospital following a minor surgery, the meeting was chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah.
He read out Prince Saud’s address to the foreign ministers.