SAUDI ARABIA: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi at OIC preparatory meeting supports Syria

Record ID: 189005

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi at OIC preparatory meeting supports Syria
  • Date: 13th August 2012
  • Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Reuters ID: LVA43FC7HK9L5A44CNYVY8H4KFF1
  • Story Text: The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and other Arab leaders met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday (August 12) ahead of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Mecca on Tuesday (August 14).
    The OIC is to hold the two-day Fourth Extra-ordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Mecca.
    Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz called the two-day Fourth Extra-Ordinary summit to examine the situation in countries of the Islamic world.
    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend the summit, which is expected to focus on Syria, Iranian media said on Monday (August 6), as tensions between Tehran and Riyadh run high over their opposing stances on regional uprisings.
    Saudi Arabia's Sunni leaders have accused predominantly Shi'ite Iran of stoking what they see as sectarian unrest in the region.
    Iran has expressed support for Shi'ite-led protests in Bahrain against the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa family, allies of Saudi Arabia.
    The two regional powers also disagree on the uprising in Syria, where predominantly Sunni rebels are fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite power base is an offshoot of Shi'ism.
    Iran has steadfastly supported Assad's efforts to suppress the rebellion, and has accused Western powers and countries in the region of encouraging chaos in Syria by sending fighters and arms there.
    Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran opposed foreign intervention in the Syrian conflict, in particular the establishment of any no-fly zone.
    "The Syrians are looking for a way out of this crisis without any foreign interference, of course we do not agree to any foreign intervention in the Syrian crisis, including the no fly zone," he said.
    He was speaking a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country and Turkey would study a range of possible measures to help Assad's foes, including a no-fly zone, although she indicated no decisions were necessarily imminent.
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