Pakistan To Host Tripartite Meet On Syria

Tehran, Nov 20, IRNA – Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that foreign ministers of Iran, Egypt and Turkey will discuss Syrian crisis in a meeting to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on the sidelines of the D-8 summit, slated for November 22. Speaking to domestic and foreign reporters, he said a contact group on Syria was formed upon a proposal by President of Egypt Mohamed Mursi. The contact group was consisted of Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia but its ministerial meetings have, so far, been held in the absence of the Saudi side. The first two ministerial meetings of the group were respectively held in Cairo and New York. The Islamabad meeting would be the third ministerial meeting. Mehmanparast reiterated Tehran’s support for any measures which would end violence in Syria and restore peace and stability to that country. He stressed that people of Syria should not allow any foreign interference in their domestic affairs and should determine their own fate by their votes. Referring to the ongoing crimes made by the Zionist regime in Gaza Strip, he said Tehran has sent separate letters to various international and regional bodies calling for their immediate acts to stop Israeli atrocities against the defenseless people of the besieged region. The spokesman also added that Iran has informed Hamas leaders of its readiness to send urgent humanitarian aid to the war-stricken people of Gaza. Moreover, he said, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as the rotating chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, in a recent phone conversation, has urged his Egyptian counterpart to call on Muslim states to take a serious action against the Zionists’ atrocities in Gaza./end