Saudi has opted out of initiative on Syria

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has reportedly opted out of the initiative launched by Egypt to tackle the Syrian crisis.

“Riyadh considers that going ahead with the initiative is not productive at this time and that no positive results could be expected from it,” a senior diplomatic source told Kuwaiti Arabic daily Al Rai.

Riyadh has already informed Cairo about its decision to pull out of the “contact group” of Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia assembled at President Mohammad Mursi’s initiative.

Saudi Arabia did not attend the first meeting held in Cairo last month.

“There are divergences in the views between Riyadh and Cairo,” the source that the newspaper did not identify said. “The kingdom accuses Iran of being part of the crisis and of being directly responsible for the bloodshed while Egypt believes that the participation of Iran is part of the solution to the crisis.”

According to the source, “Saudi Arabia and other Arab parties have informed Egypt that the participation of Iran in the initiative would lead to unhappy endings.”

“Turkey is also likely to pull out following the military strikes and in light of Ankara’s stance towards Iran’s role in helping the Syrian regime,” the source said, quoted by the daily on Monday.

Riyadh, Cairo and Ankara have demanded that Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad step down while Tehran has supported the regime and accused other countries of siding with the rebels seeking to topple him.