CAIRO: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Saleh called on Egypt to be “courageous” and resume full diplomatic ties with Tehran. He urged Egyptian officials to find the “courage necessary and resist the opposition from the United States and Israel and take an independent decision to boost the diplomatic ties with Iran.” He said in statements to Iran's official news agency IRNA, that the time is now to begin full diplomatic relations between the two countries, after decades of stalemate. Egypt under former President Hosni Mubarak had several times rejected to respond to calls by Iran to resume full diplomatic ties with Tehran, but recently appointed Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi announced last month the readiness to upgrade bilateral ties and said “Egypt is opening a new page with all State including Iran” in the post-revolution phase. Iran and Egypt cut off their diplomatic ties since the 1979 Iranian revolution because of Cairo's peace treaty with Israel and giving refuge to the ousted Iranian Shah Reda Bahlavi. Despite earlier reports by the English-Speaking Iranian News Channel Press TV that Iran had appointed an Ambassador to Egypt, Ali Akbar Sibuyeh as the first Iranian ambassador to Cairo in more than 30 years, both governments denied these reports, saying it would take time. “The news regarding the appointment of an ambassador is is hasty,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. While the Director of the Office For Iranian Interests in Cairo, Mojtaba Amani, was quoted by the state-run MENA news agency concurred, saying that developing full ties between Egypt and Iran “would take time.” “The talk about appointing ambassadors to the two countries before announcing an improvement in relations would be very early,” Amani told MENA. BM
