Saudi- OIC to dispatch humanitarian aid to Syria 

(MENAFN - Arab News) The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will send humanitarian assistance to Syria after Damascus gave its consent to the move, the Jeddah-based organization announced yesterday.

"The OIC secretariat received a written letter from the Syrian government allowing it to send humanitarian aid to the country," OIC's official spokesman Tariq Ali Bakheet Salah told a press conference at the organization's headquarters in Jeddah.

He said the organization would send a delegation to Syria in the coming days to assess the basic needs of the people there.

"The OIC will continue its humanitarian aid to Syrian people. It has no intention of politicizing its humanitarian work," the spokesman said.

Salah, who is director of OIC's department for international organizations and European affairs, also said Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu will meet in Washington today with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the Syrian crisis and the current situation in Palestine.

He said Ihsanoglu would also meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take up the same issues with him and review with him the results of the mission of UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

The spokesman said the OIC was holding talks with a number of concerned international parties to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria. He reiterated the firm stance of the organization calling for an immediate halt to violence to avoid further bloodshed and to protect human rights in Syria.

The ambassador revealed that the OIC was currently holding consultations with member countries to discuss a request from Indonesia for an emergency meeting of the organization's executive committee at foreign minister level to discuss the situation in Syria.

The spokesman strongly denounced Israel's atrocities against the Palestinian people in Al-Quds and Gaza.

Cultural spokesman of the OIC Radwan Sheikh said the OIC would continue to discuss human rights violations in Syria through its members on the International Human Rights Council. He explained 18 out of the council's 47 member countries were members of the OIC.