Muslim countries to set up contact group to seek Israel-Iran de-escalation

ANKARA (Reuters) - The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said on Sunday it would set up a ministerial contact group to establish regular contact with international and regional parties to support de-escalation efforts after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.

In a joint declaration following a meeting of the 57-member group's foreign ministers in Istanbul, the OIC condemned "the aggression of Israel" against Iran, stressing "the urgent need to stop Israeli attacks and their great concern regarding this dangerous escalation".

It also urged the international community to take deterrent measures against attacks on Iran and "make Israel accountable for crimes committed".

While the joint declaration from the meeting in Istanbul did not mention the overnight U.S. strikes, the group also agreed on a separate 13-article resolution on the Israel-Iran conflict, in which it condemned both the Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, adding the OIC was in full solidarity with Tehran.

It also called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to "unequivocally condemn those attacks and to report those attacks to the Security Council," adding the "barbaric attacks" violated international law, according to a draft of the resolution.

It said the OIC also called on Israel to "join without delay the treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and place all its nuclear facilities and activities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards."

U.S. ally Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons and says it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.

OIC members also reaffirmed Iran's "inherent right to self-defence and to take all necessary measures to fully protect its sovereignty and citizens, and to prevent recurrence of such criminal acts against its territory in future," the text showed.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Clelia Oziel)