by Marwa Yahia
CAIRO, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian crisis can not be resolved regionally without a carefully prepared plan because of the incompatibility among members of the "contact group," analysts said.
Before the first foreign ministers' meeting of the quartet committee on Wednesday, which was formed on Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi initiative to handle the Syrian issue in a peaceful way, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu called for resolving the Syrian crisis regionally free of foreign intervention.
The meeting was attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey and Iran in the absence of the fourth member of the contact group, Saudi Arabia.
Akram Hosam, an analyst with the Regional Center for Strategic Studies, said "there was no well-prepared plan, which understands the basic challenges or the possibilities for success before activating the president's initiative."
Moreover, a regional solution would not have the support of international players, Hosam added. "The international players prefer to solve the crisis under international mechanisms for protecting their agenda and interests in the region."
Mohamed Abdel Salam, a political analyst at Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said the purpose of the meeting was to find points of agreement among the participant countries over the crisis rather than to reach a solution. "It is an analgesic for the crisis."
"Failure in international efforts to solve the problem is due to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejecting the diplomatic solution," said Salam. Solving the problem regionally is unrealistic, he added.
Hosam said the absence of Saudi Arabia revealed that the four members did not have convenient consensus with regards to the solution.
The visions of both Iran and Saudi Arabia to handle the Syrian crisis are different, he said. Saudi Arabia says ousting Assad is a must and it supports opposition forces by supplying them with weapons and funds. But Iran still recognizes the legitimacy of the Syrian regime, and calls for reforms.
The Iranian representation in the contact group weakened its work, added Hosam, noting: "Iran is part of the problem, and couldn't help in solving it."
Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have logistic, military and political existence in Syria but with different interests.
Hossam noted that the conflict in Syria has turned into an unsymmetric conflict, which makes it difficult for regional efforts to tackle it.
The final solution could not come without international support, he added.
Although Hosam saw the Egyptian initiative as a chance for Egypt to regain its regional role. But Egypt has deviated from its role as a mediator since it took the stance of the opposition, posing another obstacle to the success of the initiative.
"How can the Syrian regime deal with the Egyptian regime as a mediator, since Egypt has announced publicly its hostility to the regime," Hosam said.
Fakhry Tahtawy, professor of politics at Cairo University, also agreed that differences among the participants over ousting the Syrian president have weakened the possibilities of succeess.
Resolving the Syrian crisis in the short run is impossible with differences upon interest among participants, analysts said.
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