The Quartet Contact Group on Syria ended its first meeting on Monday without taking tangible steps towards reaching its goals, reports Doaa El-Bey The new Quartet Contact Group on Syria, which includes Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, met on Monday to discuss ways of resolving the Syrian crisis and reaching consensus on an initiative that would end the violence and maintain Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The group also aimed to show its support for UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's mission in Syria. The delegations at the meeting aimed to "exchange points of view on the tragic developments in Syria and ways to end the bloodbath and achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people," Egyptian Foreign Ministry official Nazih Nejjari said in a statement issued on the day the meeting was held in the Foreign Ministry's diplomatic club in Cairo. However, no tangible results were disclosed after the meeting, something that did not surprise analysts. "It would not be easy for the group to reach a consensus. Sunni Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have called on President Bashar Al-Assad to step down, while Shia Iran has firmly stood by him," said one Egyptian diplomat who talked on condition of anonymity. Saudi Arabia and Iran are also bitter rivals with long-standing disagreements over issues related to the Gulf region, he said. On the other hand, the diplomat said, Iran has been keen to play a role in the region and take part in initiatives to resolve the Syrian crisis. "Bringing Tehran into the Quartet could convince it to accept an alternative to Al-Assad," he said. Although the meeting failed to achieve tangible results regarding a resolution of the Syrian crisis, Iran's participation is regarded as a positive sign. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdel-Lahian represented his country in the meeting, and Iranian participation came within the framework of trying to resolve the Syrian crisis through the adoption of the Egyptian proposal, according to a senior Iranian diplomat. "The initial objective of the meeting could be to make Iran, a staunch ally of Syria and Bashar Al-Assad, listen to other proposals," said the Egyptian diplomat. However, time was important, he said, as every day that passes without a resolution to the Syrian crisis sees more suffering by the Syrian people and the deaths of more civilians. The Quartet is an initiative put forward by Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi that aims to bring together key supporters of the Syrian uprising and Iran, the leading regional ally of the Syrian regime. Mursi proposed the four-nation contact group during a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last month. He also went to Tehran to attend the summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, making a strong call for the international community to back the Syrian opposition in his speech at the meeting. Mursi's visit was the first visit by an Egyptian president to Tehran since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Other efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis have included a visit by Brahimi, the new UN envoy to Syria, who is heading to Damascus this week in an attempt to broker a diplomatic solution. His visit comes in the wake of the collapse of the six-point peace plan put together by his predecessor, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Annan's plan was centred on a ceasefire that was supposed to open the way to political dialogue, but the fighting proved impossible to stop. Ahead of his trip to Syria, Brahimi paid a visit to Cairo on Monday during which he met with Mursi, Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil El-Arabi.
