Ahmadinejad To Make First Egypt Visit By Iran Head In Decades
Source: REUTERS
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Cairo next week, becoming the first Iranian president to travel to Egypt since Irans 1979 revolution ruptured diplomatic ties between the two most populous countries in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad will head Irans delegation to a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo, said Amani Mojtaba, head of Irans interest section in Cairo, which it maintains in the absence of an official embassy.
I hope that Iranian-Egyptian relations return to the full diplomatic level, he told Reuters.
The trip follows a visit by Egypts new Islamist President Mohammed Mursi to Iran in August last year, when the two leaders agreed to reopen official embassies.
Tehran broke off relations with Cairo in 1980, a year after both Irans revolution and Egypts peace agreement with Israel.
Read more: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/02/264009.html
MADem
(135,425 posts)They're starting to look more and more alike, those two countries--can the religious police, beating women for not wearing Islamic dress, be far behind in Egypt?
Actually, these days, there is a difference between the two leaders--Morsi still has a grip on the reins of power, notwithstanding some serious pushback from people in the streets who are realizing that this government was a BAAAAAD idea, while Ahmadinejad is a mere puppet of Khameini and has had what little power he had stripped from him--even his cronies were disallowed from the ballot in the last election. The wee ex-mayor of Teheran has Khameini's puppet hand up his butt,, and he won't say anything that is not approved by the ulema.
This will get complicated, as we pay Egypt a fortune every year in bribes to keep peace with Israel in foreign military sales and assistance.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)if they're going to develop friendly relations with Iran. I think this complicates things, as you say.
MADem
(135,425 posts)It IS a carrot and stick game, after all.