CAIRO — The Muslim World must break its silence on the ongoing carnage in Syria where "the situation is worsening by the day due to heinous crimes perpetrated by the brutal regime there," Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has said. In a speech, read out on his behalf by Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, at the opening session of the 12th Islamic Summit here Wednesday, King Abdullah said the United Nations Security Council has failed to create peace in Palestine and Syria. Urging the international community to shoulder its historic and moral responsibility to end the suffering of Syrian and Palestinian people, King Abdullah said crimes against Syrians and Palestinians have touched “new heights.” The King described the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of the “biggest challenges facing the Muslim countries,” and said the Kingdom has exerted tremendous efforts to deal with both the Palestinian and the Syrian issues. "Maintaining silence on these legitimate issues cannot be justified. It is our duty to support the Syrian people in their distress and halt the bloodshed that continues for nearly two years, leaving thousands of people dead and wounded,” the King said and urged all possible means for a regime change. While stressing the need for mustering efforts to have a unified global position on pressurizing Israel to stop its aggression, expansion of settlements and devouring of more Palestinian lands, King Abdullah called for resumption of the stalled peace talks. He urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states to support the Kingdom's proposal at the UN to make slandering divine religions and their prophets a criminal offense. The King also called for working out a clear methodology to enhance joint Islamic work in economic and social issues in member states. Other leaders stressed a negotiated end to Syria's civil war at the summit which thrust Egypt's new Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to center stage amid turbulence at home. The summit of the 57-member OIC opened on a day when the assassination of a leading Tunisian opposition politician highlighted the fragility of "Arab Spring" democratic revolutions in North Africa. With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad making an ice-breaking visit to Egypt after 34 years of estrangement, the two-day meeting was focusing on how to stop the bloodshed in Syria, where President Bashar Al-Assad counts Tehran as one of his last allies. In a keynote address, Morsi called on "the ruling regime" in Damascus to learn the lessons of history and not put its interests above those of the nation, saying that rulers who did so were inevitably finished. The leaders of Egypt, Turkey and Iran met on the sidelines of the summit to support the peace initiative, an Egyptian presidential spokesman said, adding that Morsi had brought together the most influential players in the conflict. Morsi sought to project his country as the leader of the Islamic World in his speech, seven months after becoming Egypt's first democratically elected head of state. He told the assembled kings, presidents and prime ministers that the "glorious Jan. 25 revolution" that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011 "forms the cornerstone in the launching of this nation to new horizons of progress". The summit will also discuss the conflict in Mali, where French forces intervened on Jan. 11 to help the army halt an advance on the capital Bamako by Islamists. Egypt and Qatar have in the past said the Mali conflict needed to be resolved politically. The Islamic leaders will also discuss the issue of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, a subject regularly brought up at OIC summits since the organization's creation in 1969. The questions of Islamophobia, Muslim minorities in the world and economic cooperation in the Islamic World are also on the agenda. — With input from Agencies
