(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Secretary General of Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) World Assembly Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Hassan Akhtari said Grand Sheikh of Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque Ahmed al-Tayeb, and Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Gomma had been invited to Iran.
“We are enthusiastically anticipating the visit by Sheikh al-Azhar [Ahmed al-Tayeb] and other Egyptian scholars to Iran, and we hope that they will accept our invitation and that Iran-Egypt friendship will be materialized based on equality and mutual cooperation,” Akhtari said, quoted by IRNA on Saturday.
Iran has opened doors on an official level for economic, cultural and religious cooperation with Egypt; and meetings by delegations from the two countries are aimed at drawing the viewpoints of the two sides closer, Akhtari pointed out.
“Egypt has thoughtful and sensible people, and Egyptians are praised by the nations of the world and are free in [choosing] their political options in the future,” he added.
Earlier in May, a delegation of 50 social, cultural and religious Egyptian figures arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran for a five-day visit.
The Islamic Republic and Egypt have not had diplomatic relations since 1980.
Iran severed ties with Egypt after Cairo signed the 1978 Camp David Accords with Israel and offered asylum to Iran's deposed monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In February, a popular revolution in Egypt led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
As part of efforts to resume diplomatic ties, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Egyptian counterpart Nabil al-Arabi met on the sidelines of the 16th conference of foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on the island of Bali in Indonesia in May.
Salehi said better Iran-Egypt ties would benefit the entire region and called on the two countries to clear any misunderstanding.
Al-Arabi, for his part, expressed his country's readiness to enhance ties with the Islamic Republic.
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