Syria Opposition Says Wary of Iran in Contact Group

The head of Syria's main opposition coalition expressed reservations on Wednesday about the presence of staunch Damascus ally Iran in the regional contact group on the strife-torn country.

"We have informed the Qatari leadership of our reservations over the matter of having Iran join the quartet," Abdel Basset Sayda, chairman of the Syrian National Council, told AFP in Doha after meeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem.

"We appreciate the return of Egypt to its regional role, but I think Iran is involved in what is happening in Syria."

Several Western and Arab countries accuse Iran of providing military aid to the embattled regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad.

Iran denies such accusations, and earlier this week called for a simultaneous halt to the fighting by both regime and rebel forces.

Tehran has proposed that the four countries in the so-called "contact group" -- Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- send observers to Syria in an effort to quell the violence there.

Last month, the United Nations withdrew its own observers after both sides failed to respect an April ceasefire to which they had committed themselves.

On Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who met Assad, said on arrival at Damascus airport that a solution to the 18-month conflict lies "only in Syria and within the Syrian family."

The uprising, which has steadily militarized in the face of government repression, has left more than 27,000 people dead since it erupted in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Civilians have borne the vast brunt of the violence.

The United Nations puts the toll at 20,000.