Ahmadinejad in Egypt on historic visit
2013-02-05 19:00
Cairo - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday on
the first trip by an Iranian president since the 1979 revolution, underlining a
thaw in relations since Egyptians elected an Islamist head of state.
President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood politician
elected in June, kissed Ahmadinejad as he disembarked from his plane at Cairo
airport. The leaders walked down a red carpet, Ahmadinejad smiling as he shook
hands with waiting dignitaries.
Visiting Cairo to attend an Islamic summit that begins on
Wednesday, the president of the Shi'ite Islamist republic is due to meet later
on Tuesday with the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, one of the oldest seats of
learning in the Sunni world.
Such a visit would have been unthinkable during the rule of
Hosni Mubarak, the military-backed autocrat who preserved Egypt's peace treaty
with Israel during his 30 years in power and deepened ties between Cairo and
the West.
"The political geography of the region will change if
Iran and Egypt take a unified position on the Palestinian question,"
Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV station,
on the eve of his visit.
He said he wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory
which neighbours Egypt to the east and is run by the Islamist movement Hamas.
"If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people,"
Ahmadinejad said.
Analysts doubt that the historic changes that brought Mursi
to power in Egypt will result in a full restoration of diplomatic ties between
states whose relations were broken off after the Iranian revolution and the
conclusion of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Obstacles to full ties
At the airport the two leaders discussed ways of boosting
relations between their countries and resolving the Syrian crisis "without
resorting to military intervention", Egyptian state media reported.
Egypt is concerned by Iran's support for Syrian President
Bashar Assad, who is trying to crush an uprising inspired by the revolt that
swept Mubarak from power two years ago. Egypt's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim
population is broadly supportive of the uprising against Assad's Alawite-led
administration.
The Morsi administration also wants to safeguard relations
with Gulf Arab states that are supporting Cairo's battered state finances and
are deeply suspicious of Iran.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr reassured Gulf
Arab allies that Egypt would not jeopardise their security.
"The security of the Gulf states is the security of
Egypt," he told the official MENA news agency, in response to questions
about Cairo's opening to Iran and its impact on other states in the region.
Mursi wants to preserve ties with the United States, the
source of $1.3bn in aid each year to the influential Egyptian military.
His government has established close ties with Hamas, a
movement backed by Iran and shunned by the West because of its hostility to
Israel, but its priority is addressing Egypt's deep economic problems.
"The restoration of full relations with Iran in this
period is difficult, despite the warmth in ties ... because of many problems
including the Syrian crisis and Cairo's links with the Gulf states, Israel and
the United States," said one former Egyptian diplomat.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of preparatory meetings
for the two-day Islamic summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said
he was optimistic that ties could grow closer.
Bilateral relationship
"We are gradually improving. We have to be a little bit
patient. I'm very hopeful about the expansion of the bilateral
relationship," he said. Asked where he saw room for closer ties, he said:
"Trade and economics."
Ahmadinejad's visit to Egypt follows Mursi's visit to Iran
in August for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the 1 000-year-old al-Azhar
mosque and university, will meet Ahmadinejad at his offices in mediaeval
Islamic Cairo, al-Azhar's media office said.
Salehi, the Iranian foreign Minister, stessed the importance
of Muslim unity when he met Sheikh al-Tayeb at al-Azhar last month.
Egypt and Iran have taken opposite courses since the late
1970s. Egypt, under Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, concluded a peace treaty
with Israel in 1979 and became a close ally of the United States and Europe.
Iran from 1979 turned into a centre of opposition to Western influence in the
Middle East.
Symbolically, Iran named a street in Tehran after the
Islamist who led the 1981 assassination of Sadat.
Egypt gave asylum and a state funeral to Iran's exiled Shah
Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown by the 1979 Iranian revolution. He is buried
in a medieval Cairo mosque alongside his ex-brother-in-law, Egypt's last king,
Farouk.
