President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, the Syrian regime's closest ally, has urged it to negotiate with the opposition and allow free elections.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks to the media during a press conference in Cairo, Egypt. Photo: AP
By Richard Spencer in Cairo
6:16PM GMT 07 Feb 2013
Mr Ahmadinejad did not say whether he supported a peace bid by the head of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, who last week offered to sit down with Syria's vice president, Farouq al-Sharaa. President Bashar al-Assad has yet to make a formal response.
But the war in Syria and Iran's support for Mr Assad are now a major obstacle to improving Tehran's relations with the Arab world, a professed goal for Mr Ahmadinejad.
Speaking on Egyptian television during his visit to Cairo, Mr Ahmadinejad said the two sides "should sit at the negotiating table to find a solution to the crisis, through mutual understanding".
Mr Ahmadinejad is attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) in Egypt, but has used his visit, the first by an Iranian leader since the 1979 revolution, to make clear he wants to improve relations with its new Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
ut Egypt has supported the Syrian opposition and called for Mr Assad to stand down, and President Mohammed Morsi's advisers have made clear Iran will have to drop its support for the Syrian regime before diplomatic ties are resumed.
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The OIC, which includes not only Iran but other countries with continuing links to Damascus such as Iraq, nevertheless came out with a statement calling for a "transition" in Syria and said the Syrian government was "primarily responsible" for the violence.
The Syrian National Coalition was formed in November to unite the political opposition in exile, and said immediately it would not negotiate until Mr Assad stepped down. Its leader, Moaz al-Khatib, surprised everyone last week with his offer to Mr Sharaa, which he said he was making in "a personal capacity".
The regime has so far ignored it, though a leading regime newspaper said it was "two years late". "During that time, our finest young men have died, suffered wounds or been exiled, while we have lost our electricity and fuel infrastructure, alongside several military positions," it said. "So the ball is not in the Syrian state's hands, as Khatib said."
Mr Assad may be emboldened by a lack of major advances in recent weeks by the rebels. His troops on Thursday took Karnaz, a town in Hama province held by the rebels since December, while despite intense fighting this week the opposition have been unable to push from the suburbs they control in Damascus towards the city centre.
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