Iran, Egypt, Turkey presidents meet to discuss Syria crisis

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has met with his Egyptian and Turkish counterparts to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria and find solutions to end the unrest in the Arab country.

In their meeting in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday, the Iranian president and his Egyptian and Turkish counterparts Mohamed Morsi and Abdullah Gul called for an immediate settlement of the crisis and an end to the bloodshed in Syria.

The trilateral meeting was held on the sidelines of the 12th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

President Ahmadinejad later described the trilateral meeting as “positive.”

On December 16, Iran unveiled the details of a six-point plan to resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria, which calls for an immediate end to all violent and armed acts.

The plan calls for sending humanitarian aid to the Syrians following the end of all conflicts, lifting all economic sanctions imposed against the country, and facilitating the return of displaced Syrians to their homes.

During an OIC meeting in Mecca on August 14-15, the Egyptian president put forward the initiative of forming a contact group on Syria comprising Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian presidential spokesman Yasser Ali, however, told reporters that Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Prime Minister Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz did not attend the Wednesday meeting.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.