Muslim countries meeting in the Syrian capital criticised Israel on Monday but said they were open to better ties with the Jewish state if it took steps towards a "just and comprehensive" Middle East peace deal. "We must not reward Israel for its crimes," said a statement issued at the end of the three-day meeting of foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
"It should be affirmed that any progress on ties must be linked to how much the Israeli position represents a commitment to a just and comprehensive peace that guarantees the restoration of rights and occupied land." The OIC said this concept was distinct from terrorism. "Terrorism is a dangerous global phenomenon, but this does not mean that we should allow it to be used to confuse issues and describe resistance as terrorism," the statement said.
RUSSIAN ROLE Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem urged OIC members to honour the communiqué and said Syria would not resume its own peace talks with Israel unless the Jewish state abided by UN resolutions which, in Syria's view, commits Israel to withdraw fully from the Golan Heights.
Moualem cautioned that a Middle East peace conference being advocated by Russia would not result in any breakthrough if Israel did not clearly accept a seven-year-old Arab peace initiative that offers it normalisation of ties in return for full withdrawal from occupied Arab land.
"What is the point of such a conference if Israel does not commit to the international references for peace?" he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the conference with Syrian officials and met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal separately in Damascus. A statement from Hamas said Lavrov told the group that Russia hoped the Palestinians, split between Hamas and the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, would be represented by one delegation at the proposed Middle East peace conference.
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