Iran and Egypt: New Friends?

[BLACKEAGLE]

Since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution, Iran has always tried to flirt with Egypt and associate its aspirations with the Arab spring. Iran explained the Arab spring in terms of an Islamic awakening where the masses are rising against tyrants, similar to Shi’a discourses that venerate struggles of the Mustazafin, the weak and oppressed against the Mustakbirin, the arrogant and oppressors.

Only a few months ago, the Iranian government invited fifty Egyptian university professors to a book fair in Iran which alarmed some political factions and on another occasion some of the families of the revolution martyrs were invited to Iran and honoured for their loved ones’ sacrifices.

In early May of this year, there was a Huseineya, a Shi’a place of worship, opened for religious practice and propagation. It was soon closed down by authorities after a unanimous consensus among all Islamists and formal heads of Azhar on the need to block any Shi’a missionary attempts in Egypt, as they deemed the Shi’ite creed as corrupt. This has shocked Iran, however. Iran does not stop trying to get on Egypt’s better side.

Iranian Fars News Agency was going to be sued by the presidential office over allegations of fabrication of an interview with the president where Morsy supposedly remarked overly positive comments to the Mullah regime (Fars also produced a fictive interview in the past with Mohamed El Baradie when he was head of the Atomic Agency).

After Morsy recently welcomed the invitation to the Non-Aligned Movement Summit Conference in Tehran, Iran went as far as calling upon those close to it in Egypt to stop criticising the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran even went as far as condemning the revolution wannabe of 24 August.

“Iran, Egypt to Offset S. Arabia, US in Middle-East” was a recent news headline on Fars News Agency which demonstrates the wishful thinking that Iran has for the new Egyptian approach. One who follows Iranian movements in Egypt will know that Iran is very desperate to have positive diplomatic relations with Egypt. What was previously presented above is only a recent sample to prove so.

The positive Egyptian response to the invitation comes as an attempt to balance power in the region and stabilise it. Morsy will be visiting China before heading to Iran. Egypt at this point is simply trying to diversify its relations with global and regional powers. China in general does not have strings attached on trade and does not concern itself with local politics unlike the IMF, World Bank and the West which generally have conditions for assistance.

During the latest meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Saudi Arabia, Morsy suggested that Turkey, Saudi, Iran and Egypt create a contact group to discuss possible ways of moving ahead with the turmoil in Syria. All sides welcomed the Egyptian initiative.

Perhaps it did not go down well with the global powers involved that will be marginalised, but it is the first initiative which includes all regional direct players on the ground aside from Egypt. The neutrality of Egypt is more likely to enable it mediate between the hard-line positions of all nations. Egypt, without a doubt, is going to act upon this initiative in the coming Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran.

The summit of the 118 member countries being conducted in Iran is defiantly good for Iran as it pushes it out of global isolation. Furthermore, it is a pretext for better standing in the region and more so against Israel which has been talking for years about a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations.

Egypt, however, should not be seen as going to open up its arms entirely for Iran. The relation comes strictly in terms of realpolitik where only mutual interests play a role. In Egypt, Islamists have made this very clear, including prominent sheikhs associated with the Al-Nour party. Their concerns are not only over Shi’ite ideology which are deemed fundamentally antagonistic to Islam, but also over the oppression of Iran to its Sunni minority and its implicit condoning of similar measures in Iraq. This is aside from the wider context which does not put Iran favourably in the Arab street after its blatant support of bloody Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Iran, however, is unlikely to lose Syria for nothing. A political Egyptian stance which does not wish to isolate Iran or consider it an enemy is certainly a substitute that Iran will be happy with and will probably make Iran accept the reality that its influence in Syria will considerably shrink, if not to nothing, and very soon. The summit will certainly be historic for Iran. For now, let the summit happen and let us see what’s next.

Iran and Egypt: New Friends? - Daily News Egypt

restoring Egyptian-Iranian relations

Despite the lack of a legal status, the Muslim Brotherhood is keen to talk about its vision for the future of Egypt. Mahmoud Ghozlan reflects this trend with recent remarks on the relationship between Egypt and Iran, ahead of Morsy’s visit to the Non-Aligned Summit

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan expressed the vision of his organisation regarding President Mohamed Morsy’s upcoming visit to Iran to attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran.

Ghozlan stressed that Morsy’s visit to Tehran is an attempt to pressure Iran to stop its support toward Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who Ghozlan describes as a criminal.

Regarding the prospects of restoring the diplomatic relations between Egypt and Iran, Ghozlantold the Daily News Egypt that it is not acceptable to have any sort of relations with Iran as long as they are still supporting the current Syrian regime.

Ghozlan also dismissed any chances of empowering Egyptian-Iranian economic relations, despite the current uncertainty looming around the Egyptian economy.

“We were looking forward to enhancing our cooperation with Iran, but with the current Iranian stance, it is impossible. Syrian blood is not cheap,” Ghozlan said.

When asked whether President Morsy would be addressing the Syrian issue in his speech during the NAM summit, Ghozlan said he can’t speakon behalf of President Morsy, as there is a presidential office to answer such questions.

“It is just an ordinary procedural summit where Egypt would yield the leadership of NAM to Iran and then Iran would be yielding it to another country in the next summit and so on,”Ghozlan explained.

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/2012/0...ects-of-restoring-egyptian-iranian-relations/

 

[RFS_Br]

There certainly are indications of rapproachment. For instance:

Report: Egypt turns down U.S. request to inspect Iranian arms ship on way to Syria

Considering that Egypt supports the Syrian anti-government factions, the above is a bit surprising. Seems Egypt, too, is playing nice on Iran.

 

[kollang]

wellcome to my city morsi!

 

[agentny17]

New friends ? Not yet! I like the potential thu. Both countries should work together and they will.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Egypt seems to be tilting away from America.

Which is a very good thing indeed.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

New friends ? Not yet! I like the potential thu. Both countries should work together and they will.

To be honest with you, I know the importance of Egypt as a mediator in the region, but I believe it's hard for Egypt to trust Iran or work against it's Arab countries. Egypt just can't sellout Arab countries and turn her back to the west like this.

 

[kollang]

history says friendship with Iran always start with a car.lol
@ Egyptian friend
we can not have military cooperation due to UN sanctions.but we can have a great tech and economy cooperation.so what is your opinion on our future cooperations?

friendship with sudan started by producing IK paykan there.and friendship with Iraq and venezuela started with procucing samand in there.and now IRAN KHODRO is going to open a new factory in Egypt and we will produce dena there.
Dena - Overview

 

[Serpentine]

To be honest with you, I know the importance of Egypt as a mediator in the region, but I believe it's hard for Egypt to trust Iran or work against it's Arab countries. Egypt just can't sellout Arab countries and turn her back to the west like this.

Seems somebody is pissed of seeing Iran and Egypt to have relations,not so surprised,this is a good answer for all those who ask who are the staggers in Muslim world.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

To be honest with you, I know the importance of Egypt as a mediator in the region, but I believe it's hard for Egypt to trust Iran or work against it's Arab countries. Egypt just can't sellout Arab countries and turn her back to the west like this.

What's wrong with turning their backs to the West?

Isn't that a good thing? So now they can have an independent policy.

 

[Imran Khan]

what we have to do with them ? let them friend girlfriend or even best friends

 

[agentny17]

To be honest with you, I know the importance of Egypt as a mediator in the region, but I believe it's hard for Egypt to trust Iran or work against it's Arab countries. Egypt just can't sellout Arab countries and turn her back to the west like this.

Who said anything about Egypt selling out Arab countries ? If anything all Arab countries should improve their relations with Iran.

 

[raptor22]

Iran and Egypt are two cultural & historical powers in the region for long time furthermore both have removed American puppets in order to have an independent policy besides having mutual interests same religion and so forth , so why shouldn't we become friends ? my question is why hasn't it happened yet ....

 

[Syrian Lion]

To be honest, i have suspicion of Morsi visit to Iran, the reason he is going is for the summit however the main reason is hidden, maybe to show the people his anti-west, which i really doubt it. So yes I myself say this, I doubt there will be any deep relations, Egypt and Iran will only be neutral countries, and that's because of Morsi. enough said.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Cairo: No plans to restore ties with Tehran
CAIRO: Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi has no immediate plans to restore ties with Iran, his spokesman said in comments published yesterday ahead of a landmark visit to Tehran later this month for a Non-Aligned Movement summit.
“The matter (of restoring diplomatic ties) is out of the question at this stage,” Yasser Ali told the Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in an interview also carried by Egyptian media.
Mursi will spend only four hours in Tehran on Aug. 30, long enough to hand over the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement to the Islamic republic, Egypt’s state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.
The Egyptian president will stop in Tehran on his way back from a 36-hour visit to China, the country he chose for his first major international outing, Al-Ahram added.
Tehran severed diplomatic ties with Cairo in 1980 after the Islamic revolution in Iran, to protest Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its hosting of the deposed shah.
Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak regarded Iran as a destabilising factor in the Middle East.
Cairo: No plans to restore ties with Tehran | ArabNews

 

[agentny17]

Egypt-Iran rapprochement: Prospects and challenges
The strained Egypt-Iran relationship has long been marked by pragmatism by both sides. But with President Morsi gearing up to visit Tehran, how far will the Brotherhood go to open a new chapter with the Islamic Republic?

President Mohamed Morsi is heading to Iran on Thursday for a four hours visit to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran, in a move that signifies a diplomatic shift in the history of Egypt-Iran relations and that could see the restoration of ties between the two countries.

Despite the fact that there is no clear Egyptian policy on the issue, the potential for future Iran-Egypt relations is there, Elizabeth Iskander, research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, said.

Mustafa Ellabbad, director of Al-Sharq Centre for Regional and Strategic Studies, said that President Morsi’s visit to Tehran was an important step for widening Egypt's room for manoeuvre and challenging attempts by the Gulf states to blackmail the country through promises of conditional financial aid.

The visit will also be central to mediating a solution to the Syria crisis that cannot be reached without ties with Iran, which is a stumbling block on the path to resolution because of its support for the Syrian regime, Ellabbad explained.

Since the downfall of the Mubarak regime early last year, Iranian officials have expressed enthusiasm over the prospect of restarting relations with Egypt.

"Cooperation between the two countries – especially in the political sphere – will contribute to stability, security and peace in the region," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at a recent press conference in Doha. Furthermore, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad congratulated Morsi for winning Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential election earlier this year, noting that the two countries shared a "cultural heritage."

Signalling optimism in the wake of Mubarak’s ouster, Iran requested permission to allow two of its warships to pass through Egypt's Suez Canal, the first passage of Iranian naval vessels through the strategic waterway since 1979. The Egyptian government agreed on the condition that the vessels did not contain "military equipment, nuclear materials or chemicals," the BBC reported at the time.

Furthermore, earlier this month, an Iranian delegation led by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, met in Cairo with a handful of Egyptian officials, including former FM and Arab League chief Nabil al Arabi.

Some observers believe it is inevitable that Egypt will open a new chapter with Iran under a Muslim Brotherhood presidency. Throughout its 80-year history, the Brotherhood has maintained a relationship with Iran, Ellabbad noted. For example, the Brotherhood's Yousef Nada mediated talks between the warring sides during the bloody Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

"The Muslim Brotherhood has sought to combat sectarianism, put the Shiite-Sunni conflict aside and create a united Muslim front – even if that includes Iran," read an article published on Ikhwanweb, the Muslim Brotherhood's official English-language website, explaining that Mubarak had perceived the rising Shiite tide in the region as threat to his power.

Therefore, the article asserts, Egypt's Mubarak-era government and state media launched a campaign against Shiism and Shiite symbols. "Under the influence of the tolerant Brotherhood, Egyptians are more comfortable with Shiite Islam than other Sunnis in other Arab countries," the article states.

Despite the religious and ideological differences between the two countries, "pragmatism has often been the order of the day for both Iranian and Egyptian foreign policy," Iskander noted. For example, Iran has supported both Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, a Sunni-Muslim offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Lebanese Shiite resistance group Hezbollah. What's more, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vocally supported Egypt's January 25 Revolution, which he described as an "Islamic revolution."

The Muslim Brotherhood, for its part, has been cautious not to overstate the future of Egypt-Iran ties in official statements. Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan recently told Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper that Morsi’s Iran visit came within the framework of the NAM summit and should not be interpreted as an indication of a close future partnership with the Islamic Republic.

Morsi’s visit to Tehran comes after decades of deteriorating relations between the two countries since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran denounced late Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat’s peace deal with Israel in 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini, who led Iran's Islamic Revolution, labelled El-Sadat’s decision as "treason against Islam," calling on the Egyptian people to overthrow the El-Sadat regime.

Iran was further alienated when El-Sadat permitted the overthrown shah of Iran and his family to take refuge in Cairo following Iran's revolution. Egypt, meanwhile, was likewise infuriated over Iran’s decision to name a Tehran street after Khaled El-Islambouli, the man who allegedly assassinated El-Sadat in 1981.

Under the Mubarak regime, Egypt and Iran maintained thorny relations, despite having nominal economic ties. Hosni Mubarak considered Iran a threat to regional stability and Egyptian national security due to Iranian support for resistance groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Egypt-Iran tensions were further inflamed in 2009 when Egyptian officials arrested 25 members of Hezbollah for allegedly plotting to attack vessels passing through the Suez Canal, bomb Egyptian tourist sites, and smuggle weapons to militants in the Gaza Strip.

Looking at the future of the Iran-Egypt relations, Iskander believes they will depend on a number of factors: the development of Egypt's foreign policy, Cairo's relations with the US and Israel, and whether Iran perceives its regional interests as including closer ties with Egypt.

Ellabbad, for his part, believes Tehran has a strong interest in restoring relations with Cairo, as Egypt is considered a pillar of the Arab world and North Africa. Iran also needs to win a regional ally in light of its tense relationship with the Gulf States and deteriorating relationship with Turkey. It also wants to maintain access to Egypt’s strategic Suez Canal.

Ellabbad also notes the importance of not overestimating the potential for Iran-Egypt ties, explaining that Iran cannot serve as "strategic partner" to Egypt since strategic partnerships require harmonious political systems and common goals and values, which do not appear to be the case in this instance.

"Iran-Egypt relations might have a new framework and new terminology while largely remaining the same," he said. "Egypt might play new roles, but the quality of these roles will be bridled by Egypt’s strategic partnerships with Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel."

Egypt-Iran rapprochement: Prospects and challenges - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online