The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) condemns the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Sudan's President Bashir.

In a statement after a meeting of the OIC executive committee at the United Nations on Friday, the organization denounced the warrant by the Hague-based court (ICC) as “unwarranted” and “totally unacceptable”.

It said the warrant would not only undermine the ongoing peace efforts to heal the conflicts in Sudan's Darfur region, but also plant seeds of instability in the African country and the region.

The ICC order was issued on March 4 charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes in the violent Darfur, where minority separatists took arms against the central government in Khartoum.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died -- many from disease and hunger -- and 2.7 million have been displaced by the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003.

But Khartoum -- which puts the death toll at 10,000 -- has dismissed the allegations, accusing the West of efforts to exaggerate the toll and imposing pressure on the Sudanese government.

On the day the ICC warrant was issued, OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of Turkey rejected the move as "void and lacking sound reasoning."

The recent statement from Muslim state heads criticized "the selectivity and double standard applied in relation to issues of war crimes and crimes against humanity which adversely affect the credibility of the international legal system."

It also called on the UN Security Council to suspend the ICC move against Bashir and urged the court itself to revoke its decision.

The ICC move sparked outrage in Sudan as well as many Arab and Muslim nations who criticize the Western world's silence on the crimes committed by Israel in the 23-day Gaza war.

The UN failed to approve a binding resolution to stop the massacre of more than 1,450 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, among whom the UN special investigator Richard Falk confirmed were 960 civilians.

He accused Israel of a "massive assault on a densely populated urbanized setting" and subjecting the entire civilian population to "an inhumane form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental harm".

Falk further noted the blockade of the coastal sliver added to the severity of the onslaught as the sealed borders did not allow for the civilians to "escape from the orbit of harm."

This denial of people's right to flee the war zone as refugees may also constitute a crime against humanity, he said.

MRS/DT