Charles M. SennottFebruary 8, 2013 13:10

Syria's civil war emphasizes Middle East's deep Sunni-Shia division

A tense Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit revealed a fault line that has torn the region apart for decades.

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Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (R) talks with Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr as they give the final press conference at the end of the 12th summit of OIC. The summit was dominated by the Syrian conflict which has divided the Muslim world along sectarian lines. (Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)

CAIRO — The ominous backdrop of civil war in Syria has exposed a Sunni-Shia sectarian fault line that was trembling at the summit of Islamic nations, which came to a close Thursday.

The crisis in Syria, observers here said, has become a kind of proxy war in the Sunni-Shia divide.

It was clear at the two-day summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that Iran’s Shiite theocracy is unwavering in its support of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Led by an Alawite minority that is considered an offshoot of Shiite Islam, Assad’s regime stepped up its pounding of the opposition, even as the delegates of the 52-nation regional organization were convening.