IRANIAN PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD’S HISTORIC VISIT TO EGYPT
[First visit by an Iranian leader since the
1979 revolution]
Iranian
President Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on February 5, 2013 on the first trip by
an Iranian Head of state since 1979 revolution, underlining the thaw in
relations since Egyptians elected an Islamist Head of State. Egyptian President
Mohammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood politician elected in June, 2012
extended red carpet welcome to the visiting dignitary.
The Iranian President went to Egypt to attend
an Islamic Summit that began on the following day
of his arrival. He met the grand Sheikh of al-Azhar,
one of the oldest seats of learning in the Sunni world.
The visit of the President of the Shia
Islamist republic 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.
Analysts doubt that the historic changes that
brought Morsi 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.
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.
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. Morsi wants to preserve ties with the United
States, the source of $ 1.3 billion in aid each year to
the influential Egyptian military.
UNSAVOURY INCIDENT
During his Egyptian visit Mr. Ahmadinejad had
to face an unsavoury incident. There was
unscripted discord from Sunni protesters angry over Iran's
support for the Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as
decades of sectarian animosity between Shiite-led Iran
and the regions Sunni majority.
Ahmadinejad was forced to flee an ancient
mosque in downtown Cairo after a Syrian protester took
off his shoes and threw them at him. Egypt's most prominent cleric chided Ahmadinejad
for interfering in the affairs of Sunni
nations.
Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, also denounced what he described as the "spread of Shiism
in Sunni lands". Tayyeb, who made the
remarks in a statement after meeting Ahmadinejad, demanded
"the Iranian President respect Bahrain as a
brotherly Arab nation, and not interfere in the affairs of
Gulf states". He also said Ahmadinejad must uphold the rights
of his Shiite-ruled country's Sunni minority.
Ahmadinejad gave a news conference at Al-Azhar
in which he said he "came from Iran to say
that Egypt and its people have their place in the heart of
the Iranian poeple."
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