Iran Stresses Continuation Of Discussions With Egypt On Syria Crisis

Tehran, Feb 4, IRNA - Head of Iranˈs Interest Section in Egypt Mojtaba Amani emphasized continuation of discussions with Cairo to find a resolution for Syria crisis. He told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of representatives of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Cairo on Sunday. ˈSyria is a common topic of discussions between Tehran and Cairo; no date has been fixed for a trilateral or quartered meeting on Syria, but Iran is committed to continue consultations with Cairo based on Egypt’s President Mohammad Mursi’s initiation for the resolution of crisis.” President Ahmadinejad is scheduled to pay a visit to the Egyptian capital on February 6 in a bid to take part in the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and hold meetings with high-ranking Egyptian officials. After the collapse of Hosni Mubarakˈs regime, the Iranian and Egyptian officials voiced their interest in the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi officially invited the then Egyptian counterpart Nabil Al-Arabi to pay a visit to Tehran. Later, the Iranian foreign minister and his former Egyptian counterpart also held a meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Also, during the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran late August, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Egyptian counterpart conferred on ways to promote the bilateral relations between Tehran and Cairo, and stressed the need for continued consultations in this regard. In a latest development, President Mursi in a meeting with Salehi in Cairo in January conferred on bilateral ties as well as the latest regional and international developments. The issue of Palestine and Syria were among the topics dealt by the two officials. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit will kick off in Cairo on February 7. The initiative for forming the quadrilateral contact group on Syria was put forward by Egyptˈs first post-revolution President Mohammad Mursi at a recent emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The proposal went under further discussions during a phone talk between the Iranian and Egyptian foreign ministers and was also a topic of discussions between senior Iranian and Egyptian officials on the sidelines of the 16th heads-of-state summit meeting of the NAM in Tehran late in August. Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country. Thousands of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States./end