UNITED NATIONS The Organisation of the Islamic Conference stands for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through negotiations between India and Pakistan on the basis of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, the head of OIC has said. Our position on the Kashmir dispute is parallel to the United Nations, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of OIC, told correspondents during a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday afternoon. Responding to a question, he said the OIC cannot bridge the differences between the parties concerned because India does not recognise the role of the organisation in the dispute. On other subjects, Ihsanoglu called on the international community to counter hatred, intolerance and discrimination against Muslims everywhere, saying that the acts of a few extremist fanatics were being used to associate Islam with terrorism. He said that during their Annual Coordination Meeting, held last Thursday in New York, OIC Ministers for Foreign Affairs had adopted a declaration on countering Islamophobia. The declaration, among other things, expressed deep concern over the growing violent acts against Muslims in some Western societies and called for global awareness of its dangerous implications for world peace and security. Negative stereotyping on the basis of religion, faith or race was wrong, he said. Terrorism and anti-Western and anti-American views could not be associated with Muslim countries and Islam anymore than the burning of the Holy Quran could be equated with the United States and Christianity. We are against these hate-mongering campaigns, he said. He lauded the United States government and community and religious leaders for speaking out against and preventing the recently proposed burn a Quran day from becoming a reality. We think that, in this case, American public opinion has shown a great maturity; the American administration has shown great responsibility. On the Middle East peace process, he said Israel should suspend all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory. OIC supported direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians and it continued to support the Arab Peace Initiative aimed at normalising relations between Arab countries and Israel, in exchange for Israels full withdrawal from the Occupied Territory and creation and recognition of an independent Palestinian State. Were for a peaceful vision whereby a Palestinian state with its capital as East Jerusalem lives side by side with the State of Israel, he said. The problem is nobody knows whether Israel shares this vision or not. In the past 20 years, one Israeli administration after another had demanded and won concessions from their Palestinian counterparts, but then refused to make good on promises to them, saying they were not responsible for the agreements of preceding administrations. I think now its high time for everybody to honour their commitments and we are supportive of President [Mahmoud] Abbas position on this case, he said. He stressed the need for peaceful coexistence among all religious groups in the region and a two-state solution, adding, We should not really punish the Palestinian people because there was a Holocaust in Germany. Asked if OIC would accept a Jewish state of Israel next to a Palestinian state when the Palestinian Authority President had not, he said the matter was for the Palestinian leadership and that OIC would support whatever it decided. He said ridding the region of WMD was the best way to reduce tension, conflict, bloodshed and competition for armament. Double standards on disarmament must end. We have to have one yardstick, he said, stressing that no country should be exempt from weapons inspections and all must abide by the same rules set by the Security Council, IAEA and other international bodies. Moreover, nuclear disarmament must be integral to the peace process. Asked about the Iranian Presidents statement last week calling for a UN investigation into the 11 September 2001 attacks and saying that most people believed the US Government had orchestrated those attacks, he said he disagreed with that assessment.