Despite the high-profile meetings and increasingly shared interests, Egypt and Iran are a long way from restoring full diplomatic ties When President Hosni Mubarak met Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the fringes of last month's Arab League-sponsored Iraqi national reconciliation conference in Cairo, both officials emphasised their countries' interest in developing stronger bilateral ties, reports Magda El-Ghitany. After the meeting, Mottaki acknowledged Egypt's "support" for Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear programme; Mubarak called current bilateral relations between the two countries "positive and appropriate". For many observers, the warmth of the meeting actually belied the factors preventing the two nations from resuming full diplomatic ties. Egyptian-Iranian ties were broken following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, when Egypt offered asylum to the deposed Pahlavi Mohammed Reza Shah, signed the US brokered Camp David peace accords, and supported Iraq in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. By the 1990s, economic relations had resumed. The first presidential encounter between the two states since 1979 took place in 2003, when Mubarak met Mohamed Khatami -- the Iranian president at the time -- on the fringes of a UN technology summit in Geneva. After the meeting, Iran's vice president at the time, Mohammed Ali Abtahai, said that both countries had decided to fully normalise their bilateral ties, a statement that was downplayed by former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who merely described Egyptian-Iranian relations as being on the "right track". A couple of years later, in March 2005, a Cairo-based espionage trial involving an Egyptian and an Iranian accused of spying for Iran then threatened to send those relations off the track altogether. The recent Mubarak-Mottaki meeting, diplomatic sources told Al-Ahram Weekly, marks yet another rapprochement. One high-ranking diplomat said that although Egypt and Iran do not have full "official" ties, relations between the countries "are strong in their core and essence". Cairo and Tehran are both member states in several international organisations and movements such as the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the D8, and the non-aligned movement; they also see eye to eye on international issues, such as their coordinated 2001 stance on combating terrorism. The barriers preventing Egyptian-Iranian relations from moving into the fast lane are still there, however. One is the Tehran street named after Khaled El-Islamboli, the assassin of late president Anwar El-Sadat. Although Tehran's city council has decided to change the street's name to "Intifada" a large mural of El-Islamboli still adorns it. Cairo sees this as a symbolic example of Iran honouring the "assassin of Egypt's former president," the diplomat said. "That is unacceptable. Before starting a new page in Egyptian-Iranian relations, Iran must close the old page first." The matter is also much more complex, of course. Iran expert Mustafa El-Labbad said that each country has "sets of demands that the other is expected to meet". Egypt, for instance, wants to know the "precise role" Iran plays in Iraq, and both nations need to agree on the regional role each plays in the Persian Gulf. According to Ain Shams University Iranian studies professor Mohamed El-Said Abdel-Mo'men, before fully resuming diplomatic ties, Cairo is also awaiting a "guarantee" that "Tehran will not be a sanctuary for extremist Islamist militants." Mahmoud Farag, former chief of Egypt's interest section in Iran, said there were other concerns as well; for one thing, full diplomatic Egyptian- Iranian ties might negatively affect Egypt's relations with the US. At the same time, closer relations carry with them the potential for increased coordination in the interest of regional stability. El-Labbad said that Iran's international credibility would also get a boost from Egypt's strong international ties. Diplomats and observers are not quite predicting a meeting between Mubarak and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad just yet. Full diplomatic relations may very well be resumed, but not in the near future. Having shared interests is just part of the story, after all. "Twenty-five years of broken diplomatic ties," said one diplomat, "have also increased differences that still need time to be resolved."
