Egypt's president to visit Iran, official says

In this photo released by Saudi Press Agency, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi attends the opening of an extraordinary session of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012 / AP Photo/Saudi Press Agency

Updated 4:49 PM ET

(AP) CAIRO - Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi will attend a summit in Iran later this month, a presidential official said on Saturday, the first such trip for an Egyptian leader since relations with Tehran deteriorated decades ago.

The visit could mark a thaw between the two countries after years of enmity, especially since Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Iran underwent its Islamic revolution. Under Morsi's predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Egypt, predominantly Sunni Muslim, sided with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-dominated Arab states in trying to isolate Shiite-led Iran.

The official said that Morsi will visit Tehran on Aug. 30 on his way back from China to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, where Egypt will transfer the movement's rotating leadership to Iran. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not yet authorized to make the announcement.

The trip is no surprise — it came days after Morsi included Iran in a proposal for a contact group to mediate an end to Syria's escalating civil war. The proposal for the group, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, was made at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca.

The idea was welcomed by Iran's state-run Press TV, and a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that Tehran's acceptance of the proposal was a sign Egypt was beginning to regain some of the diplomatic and strategic clout it once held in the region.

After the fall of Egypt's longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising last year, officials have expressed no desire to maintain Mubarak's staunch anti-Iranian stance.

Last July, former Egyptian foreign minister Nabil Elaraby, who also heads the Arab League, delivered a conciliatory message to the Islamic Republic, saying "Iran is not an enemy," and noted that post-Mubarak Egypt would seek to open a new page with every country in the world, including Iran.

Any normalization, however, would have to be based on careful calculations.

Majority Sunni Egypt has its own suspicions of Iran on both religious and political grounds. The country's ultraconservative Salafis consider Shiites heretics and enemies, and for more than three decades under Mubarak, state-run media fed the public stories of Iranian plots to weaken the Egyptian state.

However, many Egyptians sympathize with Iran's Islamic revolution and consider Tehran's defiance of the United States a model to follow, while others seek a foreign policy at the very least more independent of Washington.

A new understanding with Iran would be a big shake-up for the region, which has been sharply split between Tehran's camp — which includes Syria and Islamic militias Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and a U.S.-backed group led by Saudi Arabia and rich Gulf nations.

But of the two camps, so far it's clear Morsi has focused on courting Saudi Arabia. He visited it twice, once just after he won the presidency, and a second time during the Islamic summit. In an attempt to assuage fears of the Arab uprisings by oil monarchs, he vowed that Egypt does not want to "export its revolution". He has also asserted commitment to the security of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies, a thinly veiled reference to the tension between them and Iran.

[melpol12]

Keffiyeh and Yarmulke wearers have never been in greater danger of extermination. The coming attack by Israel on Iran would result in a retaliation that would kill most Jews and destroy thousands of synagogues. Every nuclear bomb in the Israeli arsenal would then be used, 85% of Sunnis, Shi`ites and their Mosques would cease to exist. The few survivors will trash their Torah`s and Koran`s, they will only worship oil wealth and Shekels. The words Shalom and Allahu Akbar will be forgotten.

[tsigili]

Bad omen for world peace.

[askagain]

ZionistCensorship - And you just love it. One little sliver of land surrounded by billions of Muslims and their allies. Now that will be a fair fight? But What do you care about fairness?

[Nikos_Retsos]

Morsi knows that the Egyptians had a Revolution to free themselves from the U.S. yoke. And he intends to deliver. Egypt used to be the pivotal Arab state in Middle East, but with Mubarak its clout sank down to the level of an Arab Banana Republic! Former U.S. Undersecretary of State Richard Murphy, whom I regard as a top scholar on diplomatic and foreign affairs, admitted on Al Jazeera today that "Washington won't be happy to see Mr. Morsi's trip to Iran." (Al Jazeera, August 18, 2012)

The U.S. had forced Mubarak to lock Mr. Morsi in prison as an "Islamist!" And when he was elected president, the U.S. used its clout with the Egyptian Army and the Egyptian Supreme Court judges -made from Mubarak fabric- to reduce him into a cosmetic president. Morsi decided to pick up a fight with the U.S. and the Egyptian army, and he won it! Morsi will now go to Iran to prove to the Egyptians that he is their president - not a president in the leash of the U.S. and Israel -like Mubarak was.

I am sure Morsi's trip to Iran will cause severe insomnia to Israeli prime minister Mr. Netanyahu. Too bad for him, the U.S. and Israeli propaganda about Iran has failed, and Netanyahu's empty war threats against Iran have become a subject of scorn and ridicule - even in Israel.

The Epilogue: Morsi will be the straw that will break the camel's back, a.k.a. the U.S./Israeli efforts to isolate Iran! Nikos Retsos, retired professor, Chicago

[askagain]

Do you mean a retired propagandist?

[1stlttightwad]

What you really mean is that Morsi is going to Iran to get his marching orders..or does your liberal professorship blind you to that..Some people get educated beyond their intelligence, you are certainly one.

[quincytodd]

Hopefully, Mohammad Morsi won't prove to be another pro-Western stoge waiting to carry out orders from Washington D.C. The Middle East already has far too many of them as it is! Egypt may well be one place where the Arab Spring succeeded, since failed everywhere else except Tunisia.

[jbrote47]

Sounds like the end of the month would be a good time for Israel to attack iran. Kill 2 really bad birds with one shot.

[jbrote47]

Zionistcensorship-I've read all the comments you posted here, and I have only one thing to say-What the h@$$ is wrong with you? I suspect if your brains were shoved up a gnats behind, theyed roll around like a BB in a boxcar. If you love iran so much, move there.

[MidWestSense]

This is very good news. Egypt has turned a new page of progress and peace. The rest of the world should stop faning divisions in the muslim world by always looking for differnces between ****** and sunnis.