The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) reiterated its call to the Syrian regime Wednesday to embrace peaceful means, implement its reform promises, and put an end to violence against civilians in a bid to spare the country the risk of having the crisis internationalized. “In my capacity as the OIC secretary general, I have undertaken a number of initiatives which included dispatching a special envoy to Damascus to deliver a written message to the Syrian leadership in which I expressed our profound sadness at the continued escalation of violent practices,” said OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu after an emergency ministerial level meeting. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi attended the meeting in which representatives from 30 out of 57 OIC members were taking part. Ihsanoglu said that he made clear that persisting in persuing the security and military approach in the face of peaceful demonstrations by citizens who are calling for for deeper democracy, political freedom and economic and social development is an approach that has been proven to be fruitless in containing the crisis. The OIC, he added, also expressed its condemnation of attacks on embassies and diplomatic missions. “We called upon the Syrian authorities to assume their responsibility in protecting foreign missions,” he said. He stressed that the organization did not limit itself to mere talk. “We expressed our readiness for actual and direct participation in order to contain the crisis in a manner that would be satisfactory to all parties,” he said. In Cairo, an Arab League committee met Wednesday to decide on a list of Syrian officials who will be banned from Arab countries and whose bank accounts will be frozen, a league official said. The meeting would also decide on when to implement a decision by Arab foreign ministers to end all flights to and from Syria, and a list of necessary foodstuffs that will be excluded from the ban on trade with Syria's government. Arab foreign ministers scheduled to meet in Doha on Saturday are to decide whether to adopt the committee's proposals. __
