Iran: Contact Group on Syria Shared Common Views for Solution

Local Editor

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed that "members of the Contact Group on Syria share identical views about finding a solution to the current crisis in Syria."

"The common ground between us is more than our differences," Salehi said in a joint press conference with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts after the quadrilateral ministerial meeting on Syria in Cairo Monday evening.
Salehi also stated that more talks were needed to agree on a plan which meets the demands of all sides.
The Iranian minister emphasized that there must be a Syrian solution and not one imposed from the outside.
During the press conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called for a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis, adding that the group of four countries agreed on some common points.
 

"The United Nations is committed to find a solution and we are striving to reach another diplomatic initiative... Four countries from our region, Saudi Arabia and us three, we have decided to meet in order to hold consultations to reach a common perspective regarding the future of our region, specifically the future of Syria," he underscored.
Meantime, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr said "it was too early to devise a specific plan and stated that the talks would continue in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session, which opens in less than ten days."
 
The three foreign ministers also held a meeting with UN-Arab League Special Envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi.
The initiative for forming the quadrilateral contact group on Syria was put forward by Egypt's first post-revolution President Mohammad Mursi at a recent emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Meantime, Salehi said originally, the Egyptian President had suggested a gathering of four countries, but Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested that two further countries should be included in this group.
 
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.
 

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org