Egypt opposes foreign military intervention to stop the civil war in Syria and prefers an inclusive, negotiated settlement, Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, said on Wednesday. "Egypt is committed to pursue the sincere efforts it has been exerting to put an end to the catastrophe in Syria within an Arab, regional and international framework," Morsi said in his first speech to the UN General Assembly.
Such a solution should be "one that preserves the unity of this brotherly state, involves all factions of the Syrian people without racial, religious or sectarian discrimination and spares Syria the dangers of foreign military intervention that we oppose," he said. Morsi's comments contrasted with those of Qatari leader Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who called on Arab countries on Tuesday to bypass the UN Security Council and intervene directly to stop the bloodshed in Syria.
Morsi has been outspoken about Syria since he took office on June 30. He has described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government as "oppressive" and said it is necessary to support the Syrian people. "We will continue to work to put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and provide them an opportunity to choose freely that regime that best represents them," Morsi said.
However, the Islamist president cancelled a meeting of four regional powers on the Syria crisis - Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia - planned for this week due to the absence of Turkey's prime minister from the UN General Assembly. In the wake of anti-US protests in Egypt and other Muslim countries sparked by a blasphemous video, Morsi called for increased understanding and "respect" of cultural and religious beliefs. "What Muslims and migrants are going through in a number of regions world-wide, in terms of discrimination and violation of their human rights ... is unacceptable," he said. "These practices have become pervasive enough that they now carry a name: 'Islamophobia,'" he added.
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