(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi visits Iran this week to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (Nam) meetings. This historic visit goes beyond its announced goals, Aisha Al Marri opined in the UAE-based Al Ittihad.
Diplomatic ties between Iran and Egypt have been broken for more than 30 years, since the Iranian revolution established the Islamic republic in 1979.
After the revolution Egypt's Anwar Sadat gave asylum to the deposed Shah of Iran; in response to this move, and Sadat's peace treaty with Israel, Iran named a street in Tehran after Khaled Islambouli, Sadat's assassin.
But recently Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, has announced Iran's agreement to change the street's name to Al Shuhada Avenue (Martyrs' Avenue), in honour of Egypt's January 25 revolution.
Iranian-Egyptian relations were strained throughout the 1980s. Cairo explicitly backed Iraq in its eight-year long war with Iran, providing military, political and media support.
But Egyptian forces took part in the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, and Egypt came back into the regional landscape to compete with the policies of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
While Cairo was outside the regional arena, Tehran was accused of promoting Shiism in Egypt, backing extremists, seeking regional expansion, and pulling the strings in different hot spots in the region.
"Tehran has always been pragmatic when it comes to foreign policy," the writer said. "Whenever ideology and interests conflict, Iran would opt for interests."
Egypt's January 25 revolution that unseated Hosni Mubarak created a political opportunity for Iran, especially with the Muslim Brotherhood taking power.
Egypt's foreign minister stated that the new Egypt would seek to open a new page with every country, including Iran. And last April Tehran invited Egypt, to accept an Iranian ambassador.
Relations with Egypt bear strategic importance for Iran, which has been striving to break the isolation created by its nuclear plans and its regional policies.
Reinstating ties with Cairo would help reduce the pressure on Iran. And the coming of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and other Arab countries, could serve to increase the odds of further rapprochement between Iran and these countries, the writer explained.
Foretelling the future relationship between Iran and Egypt is no easy task, she observed. The two countries have been locked in complicated relations on several fronts.
The thaw might translate into diplomatic relations, and economic interests might spur further rapprochement, but competition over regional leadership will be the main determinant of progress of the Egyptian-Iranian relations, the author concluded.
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