OIC suspends Syria despite Iranian objections

Members attending an emergency summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) suspended Syria's membership at the pan-Muslim 57-country bloc, over strong opposition by Iran, a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. "The conference decided to suspend the Syrian Arab Republic membership from the OIC and all its subsidiary organs," the closing statement by the conferees said.
The statement said that the participants had agreed on "the need to end immediately the acts of violence in Syria." The conferees expressed their concern regarding the continued violence and "massacres" committed in Syria and stressed the necessity of "preserving Syria's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity."
The suspension of Syria had been approved on Monday at a preliminary meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The conferees at the time said Syria should be suspended over "the obstinacy of the Syrian authorities in following the military option." The OIC decision to suspend Syria required a two-thirds majority.
The move by the OIC, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims world-wide, is aimed at further isolating the Damascus regime. An Arab diplomat based in Beirut told dpa earlier that "Iran was opposing the move, as well as Algeria, but most of the other members are keen to adopt it."
Some countries, including Pakistan and Kazakhstan, argued that the final statement should allocate some blame on the opposition rebels for being part of the continued bloodshed in the wartorn country, the diplomat said. In comments published Wednesday by Iran's Mehr news agency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, who was attending the summit, lashed out at some countries for failing to solve the Syrian crisis by political means.
"But instead and unfortunately some of our brothers and friends have not acted well in this area, and instead of inviting the conflicting parties for talks ... they are busy sending weapons into the country and encouraging slaughter," he said. Iran has accused Syria and Qatar of backing the Syrian rebels by sending them weapons and money. Syria, which was not invited to the OIC summit, was suspended by the Arab League in November in protest of its use of force against demonstrators, in an uprising that has since widened into civil war.