OIC SG goes to London for Somalia and Syria meetings

JEDDAH (A.A) - February 23, 2012 - Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), went to London as he was invited by British Prime Minister David Cameron to join an international conference on Somalia.  Ihsanoglu will also participate in another conference on Syria together with Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki-moon. OIC officials said Thursday that some agenda items would be discussed at Somalia conference such as security, local stability, political development, terrorism, fight against pirates as well as humanitarian and international coordination. After the conference, Ihsanoglu will join another conference on Syria as he was invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. EU foreign policy chief Barones Catherine Ashton and Secretary General of Arab League Nabil Arabi will be the other two names for the quartet summit. After the Syria summit, Ihsanoglu and his accompanying delegation will attend "Friends of Syria" meeting in Tunisia on Friday. The meeting will be held under the leadership of Turkey and France and more than 80 countries' representatives will join the meeting. Before flying to London from Jeddah, Ihsanoglu said, "Violence is escalating in Syria. There is a need for economic embargo and cooperation with the opposition and the Assad regime should make self-criticism and evaluation in order to reach a solution in the country." "We do not want a military intervention. In case of a military intervention, the fire spreads to everywhere in the region and the civil war may result in a further size of conflict," he said. The Secretary-General and his accompanying delegation are set to hold a number of meetings with high level officials including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the meeting of the Friends of Syria.