CAIRO: Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi made a rare visit to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful solution to Syria’s civil war, the two sides said yesterday.
Tehran is Syria’s closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and training for President Bashar Al Assad’s forces, while Egypt has given political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to oust him.
Mursi’s foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s groundbreaking visit to Cairo in February for an Islamic summit.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry statement said they agreed on “the necessity of an action plan...to act on the Egyptian president’s plan on the Syria crisis through an acceptable political solution which can help end the violence and help national reconciliation with the participation of the people of Syria”.
Mursi included Iran, alongside Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, in a diplomatic “Islamic Quartet” of countries established last year to try to broker a solution in Syria.
The Egyptian leader proposed negotiations between Syrian government representatives not directly involved in repression and opposition leaders under regional or UN auspices on a transition of power.
However, the Saudis stayed away from the group in February in apparent irritation at the inclusion of the Iranians, and Syria has rejected foreign involvement in the national dialogue proposed by Assad. REUTERS
