Keeping the pace

By Dina Ezzat
A recent visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi to Egypt failed to strengthen the possibility, or even hopes, that full diplomatic relations, which have been severed between the countries for more than two decades, will be restored any time soon.
The visit did, however, underline the keen interest of both Cairo and Tehran in avoiding any slowdown in the current pace of improving relations.
"There is a clear understanding on both sides that relations need to be improved, but the political grounds for a breakthrough that could lead to normalisation of relations is still missing," commented one Egyptian diplomat.
Kharazzi was in Cairo to head his country's delegation to the summit of the D-8, which comprises eight developing Muslim countries. During his two-day stay in town, Iran's top diplomat was received by President Hosni Mubarak. He also held extensive talks with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa. The talks were reported to be positive, but an understanding that could lead to normalising relations remained elusive.
Egypt has a few concerns that it wants Iran to address before it will consider giving the go-ahead for a resumption of full relations. And Iran, too, has its prerequisites for such a move.
Cairo insists that Tehran change the name of a major square in the Iranian capital which currently honours Khaled El-Islambouli, the assassin of late President Anwar El-Sadat. Cairo also needs a clear assurance from Tehran -- preferably in the form of a security cooperation memorandum -- that it will not be offering support to Egyptian Islamist militants under the pretext of Iran's commitment to promoting Islam.
For its part, Tehran wants assurances from Cairo that Egyptian-Israeli relations will not be expanded.
"So the problem today is that each party is offering the other side a package of demands that it expects to be met for relations to be normalised. This has been the case for a year," said an Egyptian official. And this situation appears unlikely to change in the near future -- certainly not before the next Iranian presidential elections, expected to be held in June.
Iranian moderate President Mohamed Khatami is viewed to be a strong contender -- if he runs. But his victory alone, experts say, would not be enough for Khatami to take radical decisions on relations with Egypt since the hard-line wing in Iran maintains considerable influence over the country's foreign policy. The Islamic Republics hard-liners are categorically opposed to normalising relations with an Arab country that has diplomatic ties with Israel.
Meanwhile, Egypt and Iran continue to work on improving their economic and cultural ties. In a lecture that he gave at Ain Shams University during his visit, Kharazzi highlighted the close historical and cultural relations between Egyptians and Iranians. According to Kharazzi, both Egypt and Iran could play an instrumental role in the dialogue of civilisations.
It is through this economic and cultural affinity, Kharazzi suggested, that the political relations between the two countries might find a path to full normalisation.
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