Turkey urges bigger role for Islamic body on Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has urged a bigger role for the world's largest Islamic body in seeking ways to end the 17-month violence in Syria following the resignation of UN's peace envoy to the war-torn country. Davutoglu told reporters in Jeddah following a conclave of foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss urgent agenda items in the Islamic world that Turkey recalled the sufferings of Syrians and urged the OIC to rapidly undertake efforts after UN's Syria envoy Kofi Annan resigned last month. Davutoglu said the organization will finally decide on the suspension of Syria, without elaborating. An OIC source told Reuters that the foreign ministers at the meeting agreed to suspend Syria from the international body, further isolating President Bashar al-Assad. "The session just ended. The ministers adopted the resolutions, including the suspension of Syria," the source said.
The move by the OIC, a body comprising 56 member states plus the Palestinian Authority that aims to represent Muslim interests on the world stage, is its response to Assad's suppression of a 17-month uprising. It will have more symbolic than practical implications for the Assad government which has never put emphasis on religion and which will continue to enjoy support from Iran which opposed the decision to suspend Syria at the OIC. "By suspending membership, this does not mean that you are moving toward resolving an issue. This means that you are erasing the issue. We want to really resolve the issue," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters before the meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The ministers were holding preparatory talks before a two-day OIC summit in Mecca starting on Tuesday where heads of government will take the formal decision on Syria, probably on Wednesday. Salehi's comments pointed towards a likely diplomatic showdown in Mecca between Sunni Muslim states, including Saudi Arabia, that have declared support for Assad's opponents, and Shi'ite Muslim Iran - a reflection of heightened sectarian tensions across the region. Speaking ahead of his trip to Jeddah in Istanbul, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said the OIC leaders will discuss the increasingly deteriorating situation in Syria and the officials will seek solutions, discuss the impact of the crisis on the regional and international peace and security. He said Turkey believe the Islamic body will send a stark warning to the Baath regime to stop the violence and immediately start the political transition.