OIC suspends Syrian Membership

(Mecca) – The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria in a meeting attended by its staunch ally Iran, in a move hailed 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.”
OIC chief 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.