Efforts to reconcile Iran-Egypt relations continue

CAIRO – 7 March 2017: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qassemi expressed Tuesday his hope to settle the problems between Egypt and Iran and advance bilateral relations, the

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported

.


In a weekly press conference in Tehran, Qassemi stressed that Egypt is a major country in the region, as well as in the Islamic and Arab worlds, noting that the ties between the two countries cannot be one-way and a set of conditions must be provided to promote relations.


“There is no special progress in the relations between the two countries in the current situation,” Qassemi said, clarifying that the contacts between Egypt and Iran are at the level of “protecting interests.”


Relations between the two states have been tense since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979 with very few prospects of rapprochement, all of which failed in practice. However, in the past few years officials in both countries have exchanged several visits to discuss regional issues.


Yasser Othman, the head of Egypt’s Interests Section office in Tehran, emphasized in early March that Egypt and Iran have similar stances regarding regional developments, in a meeting with the head of the Iran-Egypt parliamentary friendship group, Assadollah Abbasi


Iran looks at Egypt as a “major Islamic state,” Abbasi said, emphasizing that the latter is capable of having an efficient role on the regional and international levels.


Efforts to reconcile ties between Egypt and Iran expanded after the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.


In April 2011, Iran appointed its

first ambassador to Egypt

after 30 years.


A

report

issued by the Washington Institute in 2015 said Egypt “reversed more than three decades of tense relations with Iran by permitting Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal.”


The relations between the two states were further improved under former President Mohamed Morsi, who was the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran since 1979. However, efforts to warm the relations between the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran were short termed.


Signs of rapprochement reoccurred under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, especially concerning a very similar position towards the Syrian crisis, as they both opposed Saudi Arabia’s stance on Syria.