Morsy on path-breaking visit to China, Iran

[ChinaToday]

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy is heading for China and Iran — a path-breaking visit that is unlikely to please the United States, which has gone overboard to cultivate relationship with the new leadership in Cairo.

Mr. Morsy will land in Beijing on Monday, before heading for Tehran to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) there. This will be the first visit by an Egyptian President to Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The importance of the visit has not been lost on the Iranians.

“Since long time ago, Egypt and Iran as two big Muslim countries have had close ties and played key roles in the Islamic civilisation,” observed Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Majlis, Iran’s Parliament.

Iran-Egypt relationship had greatly soured during the regime of the former President, Hosni Mubarak — evident from the absence of embassies in their respective capitals.

Analysts point out that the region’s geopolitical map may fundamentally realign if the Egyptian President’s visit to Tehran leads to a robust re-engagement between the two heavyweights. Prior to Mr. Mubarak’s exit, Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hizbollah had been facing-off with a pro-West alliance of Egypt and the Gulf monarchies led by Saudi Arabia. The sharp antagonistic divisions among the Arab and Muslim countries of the region had also well suited Israel, which, since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, has not been threatened by a united front of regional countries.

Behind the scenes

There has been considerable behind-the-scenes preparation for Mr. Morsy’s visit. Last week, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mr. Morsy confabulated effusively in Makkah on the sidelines of the emergency summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Breaking ranks



While still in Makkah, Mr. Morsy broke ranks with host Saudi Arabia and Qatar by proposing a “contact group” on Syria, formed by a coalition of Tehran, Cairo, Ankara and Riyadh. Iran immediately welcomed the Egyptian proposal, with Iranian foreign policy spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast praising the initiative as the means “to review and follow up on [regional] issues so that peace would be established in the region as soon as possible and tensions would ease”.

New ties

A senior official from the Muslim Brotherhood said on condition of anonymity that the new Egyptian leadership was seeking a deeper engagement with the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping, and Mr. Morsy’s visit to Beijing at the invitation of his counterpart, Hu Jintao, was a step in that direction. The Syrian situation as well as the Palestinian question is likely to feature prominently during Mr. Morsy’s stay. Commercial exchanges as well as opening the floodgates for Chinese investments in post-Mubarak Egypt would be another possible focal area of discussions.

U.S. efforts

Observers point out that the two visits follow a feverish effort by the Obama administration to woo the Muslim Brothers. Within the space of one month since Mr. Morsy was elected President, three top Obama administration officials have called on the new Egyptian President in Cairo.

These include Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, whose visit was followed by a trip to Cairo by his boss, Hillary Clinton. Also in the queue shortly afterwards was Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who was well positioned to engage Egypt’s civilian as well as military leadership. However, Mr. Morsy surprised all when he purged the Mubarak era military top brass, headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the Defence Minister.

The Hindu : News / International : Morsy on path-breaking visit to China, Iran

Wellcome to china President Mohamed Morsy

 

[ahfatzia]

It seems the Arab Springs, instigated by western NGOs, back fired on the west again. Is it a sign of western hegemony diminishing?

 

[Pakistanisage]

Egypt is taking a path which Pakistan took few decades ago. The US and the West are unreliable Allies and the third world is better off aligning with China which is a much more reliable partner than US/West.

 

[itaskol]

maybe we still have the chance to sell egypt JF 17 or J-10.

 

[Mercenary]

Jf-17 and J-10 are totally outclassed by the Israeli Air Force.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Egypt is taking a path which Pakistan took few decades ago. The US and the West are unreliable Allies and the third world is better off aligning with China which is a much more reliable partner than US/West.

Egypt had strong ties with China even before Morsy. As a matter of fact all Arab countries have very good relations with it. I personally have respect to China, but their policy in the Syrian case is not welcome of course.

 

[Abii]

Egypt had strong ties with China even before Morsy. As a matter of fact all Arab countries have very good relations with it. I personally have respect to China, but their policy in the Syrian case is not welcome of course.

I love how you shoot yourseslf in the foot every time you post.

you say you don't welcome china's stance on Syria, but you respect the country nontheless.

When it comes to Iran, you say because Iran supports Assad, I hate everything about Iran.

hmmm...

So you either don't respect China at all or you're just using Assad to hate on the evil shias/'fire worshippers'/ajams etc...

which is it?

 

[Syrian Lion]

Egypt had strong ties with China even before Morsy. As a matter of fact all Arab countries have very good relations with it. I personally have respect to China, but their policy in the Syrian case is not welcome of course.

Syria is your NIGHTMARE, hahahahaha every thing is about Syria, you can't even go to sleep anymore , btw China is not a slave of the west, which is why China stands with TRUTH and THE PEOPLE.

 

[itaskol]

Egypt had strong ties with China even before Morsy. As a matter of fact all Arab countries have very good relations with it. I personally have respect to China, but their policy in the Syrian case is not welcome of course.

we want to have good relation wih all arab countries. and with turkey and with Israel.

syrian crisis is too complex.maybe we are not really willing to protect assad goverment.
but we have to protect syrian people and to protect Iran.
If syrian collapse.Iran will be in danger.

 

[Abii]

we want to have good relation wih all arab countries. and with turkey and with Israel.

syrian crisis is too complex.maybe we are not really willing to protect assad goverment.
but we have to protect syrian people and to protect Iran.
If syrian collapse.Iran will be in danger.

no, not really. So our supply route to Hezbollah will be cut for a while, woopdedoo. After a while another supply route will open up. Other than that, I don't see how things will change. If anything, the salafi/Al Quida types that will come to power will make an Afghanistan out of Syria and Israel and the US will have a clusterfukkk on their hands. Iran will just sit back and watch the Americans try to sort it all out. This is no different than the USSR-AFG fiasco. Afghanistan went to the shitter, so the Soviets tried to sort it all out. 8 years later, they had enough.

Americans killed saddam and then regreted it.
Americans threw Mubarak under the bus and then regreted it.
Americans made a mess out of Libya and are now regreting it.
Americans didn't help Mohamad Reza Shah in 79 when he needed his *** to be saved and they regreted it.

This will be the exact same scenario. In the end, they will find a way to screw themselves over.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

we want to have good relation wih all arab countries. and with turkey and with Israel.

syrian crisis is too complex.maybe we are not really willing to protect assad goverment.
but we have to protect syrian people and to protect Iran.
If syrian collapse.Iran will be in danger.

All the world know that Russia is the main obstacle not China, and whole world are trying to convince Russia to give up their support of the Syrian regime no China, China is just following Russian footsteps and can't work alone. China condemned massacres were committed by the regime and called for a peaceful transition of power unlike Russia.

no, not really. So our supply route to Hezbollah will be cut for a while, woopdedoo. After a while another supply route will open up. Other than that, I don't see how things will change. If anything, the salafi/Al Quida types that will come to power will make an Afghanistan out of Syria and Israel and the US will have a clusterfukkk on their hands. Iran will just sit back and watch the Americans try to sort it all out. This is no different than the USSR-AFG fiasco. Afghanistan went to the shitter, so the Soviets tried to sort it all out. 8 years later, they had enough.

Americans killed saddam and then regreted it.
Americans threw Mubarak under the bus and then regreted it.
Americans made a mess out of Libya and are now regreting it.
Americans didn't help Mohamad Reza Shah in 79 when he needed his *** to be saved and they regreted it.

This will be the exact same scenario. In the end, they will find a way to screw themselves over.

Your political knowledge and analysis is very shallow and aren't based on realities at all. America will never ever regret toppling Saddam or the other things you mentioned.

 

[itaskol]

All the world know that Russia is the main obstacle not China

exactly

China is just following Russian footsteps and can't work alone. China condemned massacres were committed by the regime and called for a peaceful transition of power unlike Russia.

we do not follow russian. we follow our own interrest.
currently we have more common interrest with russia than conflict.
Russian is a argly bully. and we will deal with russian later.

but we really want peace in middeleast between arabs and turkey and isreal.
what we really want to destroy is the petro dollar system.
more peace more money.

 

[T-Rex]

It seems the Arab Springs, instigated by western NGOs, back fired on the west again. Is it a sign of western hegemony diminishing?

The Arab Spring was not instigated by the west but the west joined the band wagon when it could not stop the tide.

 

[iajj]

China condemned massacres were committed by the regime and called for a peaceful transition of power unlike Russia.

wow, that came out of nowhere and is certainly not a position china adheres to. chinese diplomacy will not call for a regime change, period.

back on topic: morsi is so far the only positive thing coming out of the arab spring that has been for too many times backstabbed by anglo-saxons and brutalized by saudis. egyptian revolutionaries paid the highest price by far in the arab spring (in syria and liberia one finds only rebels and terrorists and anglo-saxon running dogs, not revolutionaries); it is only right that after paying such high prices in blood and lives because of anglo-saxon interference the egyptian revolution has prevailed and captured political power and swept aside a military that was perennially beholden to anglo-saxons.

china welcomes morsi with open arms as a sworn enemy of anglo-saxon race and power and as a revolutionary regime itself! channeling the revolutionary tradition of france, russia and china's own, all chinese must hail a revolutionary middle east that may one day toss out these medieval monarchies in saudi arabia, jordan and bahrain as well and impale those tyrants' heads on a stick

 

[ChinaToday]

Investment from China the focus of Egyptian president’s visit





CAIRO: Chinese investment, including in industrial and technological projects, is the primary focus of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s visit to Beijing which starts Tuesday, state media and officials said.

Mursi leaves for China Tuesday in his first visit outside the Arab world since becoming president in June. He will then head to Tehran for the Non-Aligned Movement summit Thursday.

The visit aims to “attract Chinese investment in Egypt,” said presidential spokesman Yasser Ali.

Cairo and Beijing are to sign agreements for seven major projects, including a power station in Upper Egypt, a desalination plant, industrial bakeries and Internet development, according to assistant Planning Minister Nabil Abdel Hamid.

Egypt will also propose the development of a high-speed train line between Cairo and Alexandria, Hamid told state daily Al-Ahram.

Coinciding with Mursi’s visit, a joint business forum will be held in Beijing attended by some 80 Egyptian business leaders, the Investment Ministry announced.

Egypt’s imports from China in 2011 reached $7.5 billion, versus exports valued at $1.5 billion, as trade between the two countries rose to a total of $9 billion, according to official figures.

Ousted former President Hosni Mubarak had already made trade with China a priority, as volume rose from $610 million in 1998 to $6.2 billion 10 years later.

Egypt hosted the 2009 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC, in its resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai peninsula, where China pledged $10 billion in concessional loans and enhanced trade to African states.

Mursi faces tough economic challenges in the wake of the uprising that forced Mubarak from power last year, and which has severely affected foreign investment.

On his way back from China, the Islamist president will attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran Thursday, when he will pass the movement’s presidency from Egypt to Iran.

It will be the first visit by an Egyptian head of state since the two countries severed diplomatic relations more than 30 years ago, although Mursi has downplayed the issue of a possible resumption of diplomatic relations.

Iran severed ties with Egypt in 1980 after the Islamic Revolution in protest against the 1979 peace accords between Egypt and Israel.







A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on August 28, 2012, on page 5.

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