Rapprochement is not always good. It depends who is making up to whom. Americans have to be asking why their number 2 aid client in the Middle East - Egypt - has been moving closer and closer to Iran, while the US is seeking to isolate the terrorist regime of the Iranian Mullahs. Egyptians should be asking the same questions, since the aim of the Iranian government is to install an Islamist government in Cairo, as well as everywhere else.
Ami Isseroff
Iranian speaker hails historic meeting with Egyptian president as 'very good'
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks with Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel on Wednesday, the first such high-level meeting since the two nations froze ties almost 30 years ago. Adel hailed his meeting with Mubarak as "very good." Mubarak, he said, had insisted on rejecting any pressure from the US aimed at stopping the resumption of diplomatic ties.
"The fact that I'm here is proof of the improvement in relations between the Islamic Republic and Egypt," Adel told journalists. "Maybe some people think the US is putting pressure to stop the return of relations between Egypt and Iran but President Mubarak has said he does not accept any pressure from the United States."
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that Tehran was on the threshold of restoring diplomatic ties with Cairo but was awaiting a signal from Egypt.
Diplomatic ties were broken in 1980, a year after Iran's Islamic Revolution, in protest at Egypt's recognition of Israel, its hosting of the deposed shah and its support for Iraq during its 1980-1988 war with Iran.
In a rare visit to Egypt earlier this month, Iran's former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani met, Egyptian officials and said relations between the two countries were improving.
Adel said during their meeting Mubarak "talked about his positive point of view on increasing cooperation and we also gave him our positive point of view and told him that the Iranian position is in favor of reinforcing the economic ties."
Asked when diplomatic ties might be resumed, Adel said that "the situation just needs time and this is the only obstacle. At the present time, despite the fact there are no diplomatic ties there are bilateral links on all levels," he said. - AFP
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