Salehi Meets Mursi: Internal Dialogue to End Syrian Crisis

Local Editor

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi held meetings in Cairo Thursday with Egypt's president Mohammed Mursi and foreign minister Kamel Amr. Salehi was in the Egyptian capital to discuss the conflict in Syria and improving relations between Egypt and Iran.

During the meeting, Salehi expressed Iran's readiness to provide the experience it has gained since the victory of the Islamic Revolution to the Egyptian nation, adding Tehran and Cairo "can complement each other."

He also extended the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invitation to the Egyptian president to visit Tehran.
Regarding Syria's crisis, the Iranian foreign minister stressed the importance of holding talks to resolve the crisis, noting that what is important in Syria is ending the violence, restoring peace and providing welfare for its nation.
"The Syrian issue will be resolved only through negotiations and otherwise the entire region will be affected by its negative impacts," he said.
He noted that the contact group, comprising Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, would be an "appropriate mechanism" for settling the Syria crisis and expressed hope that constructive measures would be adopted within this framework.

Mursi, for his part, expressed satisfaction over the meeting with the Iranian delegation and called for cooperation between the two countries at different levels.
He added that he would pay a visit to Tehran in an appropriate time in response to his Iranian counterpart's invitation.
Earlier , Salehi also held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr and the international Envoy to Syria al-Akhdar Ibrahimi .
During a press conference with Amr, Salehi reiterated that Iran would like to see talks between the Syrian government and the opposition start before it's too late, and that regional states sit down and talk, so as to find a solution between both sides and prevent foreign intervention.

Salehi further argued that Middle East states were "able to solve their own problems, without resorting to parties outside the region."

For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr said that a peace proposal by Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi, calling for Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to jointly negotiate an end to the Syrian conflict, was still on the table. He added that "Iran has a key role to play."

"There must be an understanding both between Syrians and among regional powers," he said, and noted that "it must respond to the legitimate demands of the Syrian people, as was the case in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, in order to spare the Syrian people more bloodshed."
Iran, he added, has a role to play in President Mursi's four-party diplomatic initiative.

Foreign Minister Salehi also met with the sheikh of Egypt's al Azhar University, as well as with the country's newly-elected Coptic pope.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org