Salehi to lead political delegation to Egypt Monday

Tehran, Sept 17, IRNA – Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will lead a political delegation to Egypt on Monday. Talking to IRNA, he said the objective of his visit to Egypt is to take part in the Cairo meeting on Syria and also to meet and confer with the Egyptian President Muhamed Mursi. The foreign minister was asked to comment on whether the Cairo meeting was a follow up of a previous one attended by senior experts from Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to settle the Syrian crisis, he said while the last week’s meeting was held at experts level, the present one will be at the foreign ministerial. Based on a proposal by President Mursi during the extraordinary session of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation in Mecca, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia formed a committee as four important states which greatly influence regional developments. They are to hold sessions to review issues including the situation in Syria. After the experts meeting in Damascus, Cairo suggested that the second round of talks to be held at the foreign ministerial level which was greatly welcomed by Iran as a positive step towards focusing on common points to tackle the Syrian problem. Iran has proposed that Venezuela as the member of the Non-Aligned Movement troika and Iraq as the rotating head of the Arab League join the four-party committee to settle the Syrian crisis believing that this would take the initiative of President Mursi closer to success.