BAMAKO, Mali, June 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Foreign ministers and hundreds of delegates from the 56 nations in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) renewed their call for halting all political contacts and relations with Israel in a meeting where the Middle East crisis topped the agenda.
The OIC conference in Mali, which ended its meeting late Wednesday, issued a communiqué calling on Islamic countries to practice suspending relations with Israel, a call that was raised in a previous meeting in Qatar last month.
The communiqué said OIC countries decided to halt relations with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people through their uprising. It added it will continue the halt as long as Israeli aggression and blockades continue, news agencies reported.
Most OIC members boycotting Israel, except Mauritania and Senegal, have kept their relations with Israel unchanged despite the OIC's previous call.
OIC foreign ministers criticized the U.S.'s negative stand towards sending a U.N. inspection committee to protect Palestinians from Israel's continuous aggression on the Palestinians.
More than 600 have been killed in the region, most of them Palestinians, since the al-Aqsa Intifada, or uprising, started last September.
They also called for the removal of Jewish settlements from Palestinian occupied territories and Israel's withdrawal from the Sheba'a Farms area it still occupies in Lebanon.
The meeting also condemned Israeli threats towards Syria.
The communiqué confirmed that there could not be a just and comprehensive peace until after Israel withdraws from Palestinian and other Arab land it occupies.
The 18th OIC foreign ministers' meeting was held over four days in which talks tackled issues surrounding "peace and development".
It also covered Afghanistan and the ongoing dispute between Pakistan and India over the divided state of Kashmir.
The Philippines and Belarus were also represented in Bamako in an observer capacity.
At the Conference's opening, ministers gave emphasis towards the need to settle disputes among OIC member countries, or within predominantly Muslim nations.
