Turkey crticises OIC members who reached recognistion deal with Israel

The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation opened an emergency meeting Sunday over the heavy fighting between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s militant Hamas rulers, the first major move among Mideast nations still grappling with how to address the conflict. While the Arab League and organizations like the Saudi-based OIC have maintained their view that the Palestinians should have their own independent state, Israel recently has reached recognition deals with several of its members. That, as well as the concerns of some nations over Hamas, has seen a somewhat-muted response to the attacks as opposed to the full-throated response of decades past.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki of the Palestinian Authority, which administers autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, decried what he called Israel's “cowardly attacks” at the start of the meeting. “We are facing a long-term occupation. that’s the base of the problem. Crimes are committed against the Palestinians without consequences,”he said. However, Malki's Palestinian Authority has no control over Hamas and the Gaza Strip, where the militants seized power in 2007.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu took a similarly hard line. “Israel alone is responsible for the recent escalation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza,” Cavusoglu said. "Our warnings to Israel last week went unheeded.” Across the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf states, reactions to the fighting have been mixed. Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, criticized OIC members who reached recognition deals with Israel. “There are a few who have lost their moral compass and voiced support for Israel,” he said.