Iranian parliament speaker says ties with Egypt improving

Jan 30, 2008, 14:37 GMT

Cairo - The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam Hadad, said Wednesday that relations between Iran and Egypt are improving and the obstacles standing in the way of resumption of diplomatic ties are minor.

Speaking after meeting Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, Hadad struck a note of optimism about 'improving' bilateral relations, which were cut off by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

The main reason for the decades-long animosity is Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. Cairo also gave sanctuary to the deposed Shah of Iran, a move that angered Tehran.

'The issue [resumption of ties] is only a matter of time. There is no major obstacle. There are bilateral ties in different areas despite the absence of full political relations,' Hadad told reporters.

Hadad, on his first visit to Egypt, will attend the fifth conference of parliamentarians from Islamic countries to be held in Cairo on Wednesday.

The visit is seen as another indication of a thaw in bilateral relations. Officials from both countries have recently exchanged visits, crowned with a visit to Egypt by Ali Larijani, the former Iranian nuclear negotiator, in December.

A landmark phone call between Presidents Mubarak and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week gave more strength to the possibility of an imminent resumption of ties.

Both countries have been trying to restore ties since 2003 but Iran has not responded to Egypt's demand for it to remove a mural in Tehran commemorating Khalid al-Islambouli, one of the Islamist killers of former Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.

Iran has also been reluctant to rename a Tehran street named after Sadat's killer.

Hadad downplayed this issue's importance: 'These are minor issues that can be solved. They are no major obstacles to normalizing ties.'

He also suggested that Iran was not to blame for ties not having resumed. 'President Ahmadinejad said he was prepared to resume ties the next day. This is a good enough, clear-cut answer,' he said.

Egypt's security concerns remain the reason for not restoring ties, local media reports say.

Iran has been often accused of fomenting unrest in the region and sponsoring radical groups, especially in Lebanon, Iraq and the Hamas- run Gaza Strip.

Egyptian leaders fear that resuming ties with Tehran may give it a foothold in their country and increase its regional clout, analysts say.