Assad Says "true Intentions" Key to Successful Initiative in Syrian Crisis

Damascus (ANTARA/Xinhua-OANA) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed Wednesday that "true intentions" are key to the successful initiative on Syrian crisis, stressing his country has shown openness in dealing with all proposed initiatives, official SANA news agency reported. Assad made the remarks during his meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi. He noted that the proposed initiatives should be built on the basis of respecting Syria's sovereignty, the free decision of the Syrian people as well as rejecting the foreign intervention. The embattled Syrian leader also contended that the current battle targets the "resistance system" in the region not only Syria, in reference to the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran. For his side, Salehi stressed his country's "ultimate support" to Syria's efforts to restore security and stability. Earlier, Salehi said "we wish that we could reach one result for solving this problem (crisis) after the talks with our brothers in Syria." He also stressed that the solution to the 18-month-old crisis should emanate from the Syrians themselves "with the participation and coordination with the all the international and regional institutes and the regional countries that are sincere and truthful to resolve this issue." Salehi's visit to Syria came after his recent visit to Egypt, during which he held meetings with foreign ministers of Turkey and Egypt. Iran, the main regional patron of Syria, is a member of the newly-established quartet committee, which also groups Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. The formation of the quartet group was proposed by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi with the aim to handle the Syrian issue peacefully. The committee held its first meeting Monday at the level of foreign ministers in the Egypt's capital, Cairo. After the Monday's meeting, Salehi stressed at a press conference that the Syrian crisis should be solved within Syria, a way that he dubbed a "Syrian-Syrian solution", while adding that " we cannot seek to impose a solution forcefully on Syria." He, however, proposed to dispatch the observers from the four countries to the crisis-hit country.(*)