Syria gives positive signals to OIC relief

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Syria is likely to accept a proposal from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to send a delegation aiming to deliver humanitarian aid and determine the Syrian people’s needs.

“We expect Syria to respond to our proposal in a few days, and there are positive signals from Damascus,” an OIC official told a group of journalists March 7. Opening a bureau for humanitarian aid is also on the agenda, he said. The OIC official stressed that the organization had not suspended Syria’s membership in the OIC because they “always prefer to maintain a dialogue” with the Syrian regime, as they did in the case of Libya.

If the Syrian administration grants permission, an OIC delegation, headed by the organization’s deputy secretary general for humanitarian affairs, will go to the country and extend assistance to the Syrian people. Separately, the OIC will hold a conference to bring together religious sects in Iraq, as part of an effort to prevent sectarian conflict in the country. A conference for ulama in Afghanistan is also on the OIC’s agenda, the official said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has discussed the Syrian crisis on the phone with U.N.-Arab League special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan. Annan said he would like to visit Turkey as part of his tour of countries in the region, diplomatic sources said. Turkey will not make a unilateral move to intervene militarily in Syria but will only be part of an international action, Rifat Sait, a Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy, told a group of journalists, making a comparison between the ongoing situation in Syria and the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica. “There are similarities and differences between Srebrenica and the Syrian crisis,” Sait said.