Iran Offers Inclusion of New Actors in Syria Contact Group

Tehran offered that other countries should also join Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the talks on Syria.
“Iran has proposed the joining of certain countries to the innovative plan of the quartet committee proposed by Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi to solve the crisis in Syria,” Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Yasser Ali was quoted by al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper as saying on Monday.

He also said that other participants in the quadrilateral meeting have endorsed Tehran’s view about the need for the inclusion of other states, like France, in the contact group on Syria.

During the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which was held in Mecca on August 14-15, President Mursi proposed the formation of the contact group on the situation in Syria with Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey as its members.

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.

Hundreds 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.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.