Idea of breaking up Syria is rejected: Iran

Source : Tehran Times

TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said that the idea of breaking up Syria is rejected because it will cause the crisis in the Arab state to spill over into other regional countries.

“If a political vacuum is created in Syria or Syria is divided, the crisis in the country will spread to the entire region and will compound the problems of regional countries,” Salehi told Al Hayat in an interview in Jeddah published on Tuesday.

The Syrian government and opposition groups should sit at the negotiating table and discuss the establishment of a transitional government and the holding of elections based on the Constitution, he added.

Salehi also welcomed a U.S.-Russian proposal for an international conference on ending the two-year-old conflict in Syria, expressing hope that it would help find a political solution to the crisis.

“Since the onset of the crisis till now, Iran has announced that it agrees with a political solution to the Syrian crisis without the interference of foreign parties and believes that the sovereignty of Syria is still intact. The people have some demands, and they should enjoy freedom like any other nation. The time for dialogue has come,” the Iranian foreign minister said.

Iran to continue consultations with S. Arabia

Elsewhere in his remarks, Salehi commented on his meeting with his Saudi counterpart Minister Saud al-Faisal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday and said, “The stances of Iran and Saudi Arabia are different on certain cases.”

“We discussed relations between the two countries and regional developments,” he said. “We agreed to be in contact constantly and emphasize the positive points of these relations.”

Iran will continue talks with Saudi Arabia and there are security agreements between the two countries which should be implemented, Salehi said.

The Iranian foreign minister visited Jeddah on Sunday and Monday at the invitation of his Saudi counterpart to attend a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Contact Group on the crisis in Mali.

EP/PA

No end to Iran support for Palestine: Salehi

Source : Islamic Invitation Turkey

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has reiterated Tehran’s support for the Palestinian nation and their efforts to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a meeting with the deputy head of Hamas Political Bureau, Mousa Abu Marzuk, in Tehran on Sunday, Salehi stressed Iran’s unwavering support for Palestine and Palestinian resistance groups.

He said the Islamic Republic as the current president of the Non-Aligned Movement will explore all available means to aid Palestinians and ease their suffering and pain.

He also pointed to Tehran’s efforts to end the Syrian crisis, and criticized attempts by certain countries to obstruct national dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition groups.

Marzuk, for his part, expressed gratitude for the support of the Iranian nation and government for Palestine.

The senior Palestinian official also stressed the need for convergence among major regional countries to resolve regional issues, including the Syrian crisis, without foreign meddling. – See more at: http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/ 03/03/291763/no-end-to-iran-support-for-palestine/#sthash.Pt26Z3Hv.dpuf

Iran to scrap visas for Egyptians

Source : Vesti Kavkaza

Iran will lift visa requirements for Egyptian tourists and businessmen, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Ashark Alawsat.

A declaration will be made today during the final session of the OIC summit in Cairo.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the first high-ranking Iranian official to visit Egypt in the past 33 years. He invited Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to visit Tehran.

Iran minister 'optimistic' US is shifting its view on Iran

Source : http://www.globalpost.com

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday he was "optimistic" the United States was revamping its approach to Tehran in the protracted dispute over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

"As I have said yesterday, I am optimistic," he told a foreign policy think tank in Berlin.

"I feel this new (US) administration is really this time seeking to at least divert from its previous and traditional approach vis-a-vis my country."

Salehi had told a security conference in the southern German city of Munich Sunday that Iran was open to a US offer for bilateral discussions if Washington's intentions were "authentic".

He said Iran took comments by US officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, who said at the Munich conference that Washington was ready to hold talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, "with positive consideration".

And Salehi said Iran was ready to resume talks over its disputed nuclear work with the United States and five other world powers in Kazakhstan on February 25, insisting that Iran had never pulled back from the negotiations.

"The recent approach by the US, we look at it positively," he said Monday.

"We hope that this time they are really meaning what they say and that they really want to see how they can resolve this issue bilaterally. We express our readiness to resolve the issue bilaterally."

Washington severed diplomatic ties with Iran in the wake of the 1979 revolution, and relations remain hostile.

Iran and six world powers -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- held three rounds of talks last year aimed at easing the standoff over Iran's nuclear activities, which Tehran insists are peaceful.

The six, known as the P5+1 or EU3+3, called on Iran to roll back its programme but stopped short of meeting Tehran's demands that they scale back sanctions, and the last round ended in stalemate in June in Moscow.

Since then, talks have been held up over disagreements on their location.

In broadly conciliatory remarks, Salehi added Monday that Tehran would continue talks with the Syrian opposition following a preliminary meeting at the weekend.

"We had 45 (minutes) to an hour discussion which was very fruitful... and we committed ourselves to continue this discussion," Salehi said after meeting Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib in Munich.

Salehi on Sunday called the talks with Khatib a "very good meeting" and "a good step forward".

They were the first between the Iranian foreign minister and Khatib, who became Syrian National Coalition leader late last year and who also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Biden in Munich on Saturday.

Salehi said the opposition and government in Syria needed to be able to sit down for talks and that he had stressed to Khatib the need for the two sides to meet and organise presidential elections.

His speech in Berlin was briefly interrupted by a protester and a few dozen demonstrators braved the cold, driving rain to stage a rally against Iran's human rights record.

UAE-Egypt Crisis: Mubarak and Iran Lurk in the Background

Source :  Al Akhbar English

Wednesday’s visit by the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Akbar Salehi to Egypt only added more fuel to the fire burning between Cairo and the United Arab Emirates.

Tensions between the two countries intensified after the recent arrest of 11 Egyptians in the UAE on charges of belonging to a secret Muslim Brotherhood cell that was plotting to destabilize the country.

Abu Dhabi fears that relations between its long-time foe Iran and, until recently, its close ally Egypt will improve as its relations with Cairo sour.

According to head of the Cairo-based al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies Mustafa al-Labbad, Egyptian-Iranian relations have a long way to go before they return to normal.

He dismisses the idea that Salehi’s visit will significantly change the nature of the relationship between the two countries, arguing that it is intended to prevent relations from worsening.

As an example, he points out the collapse of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s attempt to bring together Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to devise a solution for resolving the Syrian crisis.

In the case of the UAE, he attributes the increasing tensions to “threats that the regime is sensing, particularly from the rising star of the Islah Front in the UAE, which is seen as a shadow branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Saudi Arabia, too, shares the same concerns that the Muslim Brotherhood will one day influence a section of the Saudi elite that is independent of the regime, thus threatening Riyadh’s influential role in the Arab world.”

Former advisor to the Egyptian foreign minister Hani Khlaf largely agrees with Labbad, criticizing Mursi’s speech at the last Summit of the Non- Aligned in Tehran, in which the Egyptian president “reminded us of sectarian divisions between Sunnis and Shia.”

He adds that any new government in Egypt was bound to have problems with those Gulf countries that once had warm and close relations with the fallen Mubarak regime.

He suggests that one source of Abu Dhabi’s frustrations toward Cairo may be due to the fact that successive Egyptian governments after the revolution “refused an offer by the Emirates to pay a large sum of money – possibly amounting to billions of dollars – to keep Mubarak out of jail.”

Khlaf explains that the UAE did this out of loyalty to Mubarak, adding that Egypt’s current relationship with the Arab Gulf countries after the revolution is the opposite of what it was before.

“For example, the Mubarak regime maintained close ties with the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain before the revolution as compared to tepid relations with Qatar and Kuwait,” Khlaf says.

“These two countries,” he adds, “were therefore more supportive of any attempts to shed remnants of the old order, as opposed to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in particular.”

Khlaf further attributes the crisis to “the presence of symbols of the old [Egyptian] regime in the Emirates, in addition to businessmen who had ties to Mubarak.”

Many of them, he explains, are very influential, having developed close contacts with a number of powerful members of the Emirati ruling class and have been granted residency there as a result.

And it did not help that the Egyptian presidency showed such high concern for the alleged Muslim Brotherhood cell, according to Khlaf.

It was to such an extent that Egypt’s intelligence chief, Rifaat Shehata, joined the high-level delegation sent to the UAE to look into the case of those arrested.