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Egypt and Iran to hold talks on renewing ties

10 hours ago

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt and Iran will hold ministerial level talks aimed at renewing full diplomatic relations, which have been frozen since 1980, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

"There has been an agreement to continue dialogue between both sides in particular over bilateral relations on the level of senior officials and then foreign ministers," spokesman Hossam Zaki said.

The announcement came as international tensions were running high over Iran's nuclear drive, with warnings by France that the world should be ready for a war over the crisis.

It followed talks in Cairo earlier Tuesday between Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Hussein Dirar, Egypt's assistant foreign minister for Asian affairs.

"The Iranians want to talk, have contacts, and Egypt won't close the door," Zaki told AFP by telephone. "Both sides are willing to develop relations and advance towards removing the questions obstructing" renewed ties.

There was no immediate confirmation in Tehran of Cairo's announcement.

In May, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran was ready to restore full diplomatic relations with Egypt and would open its embassy in Cairo the "very day" the Egyptian government agreed.

But one month later, Egypt's foreign minister accused Iran of having encouraged Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to seize neighbouring Gaza and said it posed a threat to the Arab world.

"Iran's policies encouraged Hamas to do what it has done in Gaza and this represents a threat for Egypt's national security because Gaza is a stone's throw from Egypt," Ahmed Abul Gheit said in Al-Masri Al-Yom newspaper.

Iran and Egypt currently only have interests sections in their respective countries after Iran cut ties in 1980 following the Islamic revolution in protest at Cairo's recognition of Israel and hosting of the deposed shah.

Emad Gad, an analyst with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the latest statements where an attempt by Egypt to flex its muscles before the United States but was skeptical over how willing Egypt is to risk relations with its key Western ally for a rapprochement with Iran.

He said the statements could be in response to a recent US government report citing "declining" religious freedoms in Egypt, which infuriated Cairo.

"Egypt cannot have real diplomatic relations with Iran while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in power, because of his inflammatory statements," said Gad.

Egypt is the only Arab state with which Iran does not have normal relations. It became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994.

Iran was fuming in 2006 when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a major broker in Middle East politics, made comments about Shiites' allegiance to Tehran.

"There are Shiites in all these countries (of the region), significant percentages, and Shiites are mostly always loyal to Iran and not the countries where they live," he said of Arab Shiite populations.

"Naturally, Iran has an influence over Shiites who make up 65 percent of Iraq's population," added the 77-year-old Mubarak, who has ruled Sunni-dominated Egypt for a quarter of a century.

In a sign of the past animosity between the two countries, Iran named a street in Tehran after Khaled Eslambouli, the Islamist who assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, and put up murals praising him as a martyr.

Tehran city council agreed three years ago to change the name to "Intifada," but the former name is still on all road signs.

In 2004, Iranian officials also expressed confidence that full ties with Egypt were on their way to being restored but these hopes came to nothing.

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