The UN Security Council should find a solution to the ongoing crisis in Syria to prevent more bloodshed, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said in a speech read out by Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, in Cairo.
The king urged the 56-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation to turn their back on the council if it fails to solve the crises in Palestinian and Syria.
Crown Prince Salman is leading the Saudi delegation at the summit.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has exerted great efforts to deal with the Palestinian and Syrian issues. I reiterate Saudi Arabia’s full stand with Palestinian and Syrian peoples in this calamity, calling upon all states to intensify their efforts at all levels to achieve the legitimate demands of the two peoples,” the king said.
King Abdullah urged Muslim leaders to work together for the development of the Islamic nation.
“The crucial challenges and changes experienced by our Islamic nation, requires all of us to discuss its dimensions and its political, economic and social repercussions as well as the necessity to follow the best methodological approaches to address them and reduce their impact on our peoples,” the king said.
Amid these challenges, the conflicts in the Islamic world represent an obsession haunting all OIC member states.
“The Arab-Israeli conflict comes at the forefront of these conflicts which revolves around the cause of the Palestinian people and the obtaining of their legitimate rights as well as addressing the Israeli settlement expansion that manage to seize Palestinian territories and launch military operations against the Palestinian people relentlessly,” the king said.
“This matter requires all of us to oppose it and intensify efforts to mobilize international unified stance to mount pressure on Israel in order to halt its aggression, settlement expansion, swallowing more Palestinian territories. We have to work for the resumption of negotiations in accordance with known international references, the Arab Peace Initiative, the roadmap plan and ending the suffering of the Palestinian people who showed enough patience to restore their legitimate rights and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital within the framework of strengthening the opportunities of bringing about peace and security in the Middle East,” the king said.
King Abdullah also urged the summit to address the issue of terrorism, which threatens the security and safety of human societies.
“It’s an international plague that belongs to no religion and no nationality and a threat that endangers the international security and peace,” the king said about terrorism. “We have to work hard in our fight against terrorism, using the most possible means, fixing our objectives, working with the necessary transparency and credibility,” he explained.
King Abdullah’s speech also dealt with the issue of Islamophobia. “The most major challenge facing our Islamic nation today is hatred of religions or religious leaders by those who have suspicious and ill goals, persons who use the freedom of expression and opinion to attack Muslims and their sanctuaries without any ethical or legal deterrent that incriminate them,” the king said.
“So, we demand all member states of the OIC to support the proposal submitted by Saudi Arabia at the United Nations to issue a resolution condemning any state, group or individual who defame the divine religions or prophets and messengers including the most toughest deterrent punishments of such acts.”
Speaking about the Syrian crisis, the king said: “The Syrian regime commits heinous crimes including abusing, torturing, systematic killing and displacing of the Syrian people. These crimes are so provocative to the extent that our silence cannot be justified and sitting hand-cuffed cannot be accepted. Our countries should do their duty to support the Syrian people.”
The king added: “The international community, especially the Security Council, has to take necessary measures and decisions to deter these crimes and violence against the Syrian people and achieve the transfer of power by all possible means, in view of the latest report by the joint Arab-international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi before the Security Council that the Syrian crisis is deteriorating dramatically, warning of dire consequences in Syria.”
The Security Council is the international entity in charge of bringing about international peace and security. If we fail to push it to support the international peace and security in Syria and Palestine, we have to turn our backs against it and work to build our capabilities to solve our problems by ourselves, the king said.
King Abdullah stressed the need to stop foreign interference in Muslim countries.
“If we could prevent foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Islamic nation, the provocation of a schism among its peoples, and tamper their cultural identity for the sake of political objectives, we will enhance the chances of achieving security, stability and development in the region,” the king said.
King Abdullah expressed his hope that the summit would take decisions reflecting aspirations of people in the Islamic world. “We hope this summit will issue decisions achieving aspirations of the Islamic nation and ways of promoting joint Islamic action.”
The summit was opened on a day when the assassination of a leading Tunisian opposition politician highlighted the fragility of “Arab Spring” democratic revolutions in North Africa.
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki canceled his trip to the Cairo meeting after Shokri Belaid, a staunch secular opponent of the moderate Islamist government, was shot dead outside his home, triggering street protests.
The two-day meeting had been scheduled to take place in 2011 but was postponed due to the regional uprisings that overthrew four Arab dictators, including Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, the OIC’s secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said.
