Iran downplays Ahmadinejad shoe attack
2013-02-06 18:49
Tehran - Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday downplayed
an incident in Cairo in which a protester tried to throw a shoe at President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying it did not indicate Egypt's official stance towards
Tehran.
"What is important to us is the behaviour of
Egyptian officials and the nation, who respect the Islamic republic as a major
power," the ISNA news agency quoted ministry spokesperson Ramin
Mehmanparast as saying.
On Tuesday evening, Iranian President Ahmadinejad was
booed by a man who also tried to throw his shoe at him as he left Cairo's
Al-Hussein mosque following prayers.
The man, identified as a "Syrian opposition"
member by ISNA, also pushed a bodyguard but he was quickly dealt with and
Ahmadinejad was able to enter his car.
At the scene, four youths waved placards scrawled with
slogans against Iran over its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's
regime in its 22-month conflict with rebels.
"O Ahmadinejad, do not think the Syrian blood is in
vain. We will take revenge on the Shi’ites," read one of the posters.
Ahmadinejad, unfazed by the incident, termed it a
"minor issue".
Talking to Egyptian media late on Tuesday, the president
said: "There might be some opposition in both countries who disturb the
atmosphere... by prejudice and some actions," the official IRNA news
agency reported.
Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to visit Cairo
in more than 30 years, was given a red-carpet welcome by Islamist President
Mohamed Morsi when he arrived on Tuesday.
But he faced criticism by Egypt's top Sunni cleric who
asked him not to interfere in the affairs of Gulf states.
Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, also
urged Ahmadinejad to uphold the rights of his Shi’ite-ruled country's Sunni
minority, denouncing what he described as the "spread of Shi’ism in Sunni
lands".
Mehmanparast on Wednesday considered Ahmadinejad's
three-day visit as an "effective" step forward in bilateral ties and
said it created "stability in the region".
Ahmadinejad's visit comes amid thawing relations between
Egypt and Iran, which severed ties with Cairo in 1980 in protest at a peace
treaty signed the previous year between Israel and Egypt.
Iran has been reaching out to Egypt since Islamists came
to power in the wake of the 2011 revolution that ousted veteran president Hosni
Mubarak, a staunch critic of Tehran.
Morsi, who hails from the powerful Sunni Muslim
Brotherhood, has attended a Non-Aligned Summit in Iran, becoming the first
Egyptian president to travel to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
