CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's spokesman Yasser Ali was quoted on Saturday as saying that the country has no intentions of restoring diplomatic relations with Iran, only days after it was speculated the president's visit to Tehran would be a watershed moment for the two countries' relations. Morsi is to be in the Iranian capital on August 30 to attend the hand over of the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement to the Iranian government. But according to the state-owned al-Ahram newspaper, he will spend only four hours in the country. “The matter [of restoring diplomatic ties] is out of the question at this stage,” Yasser Ali told the Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in an interview also published in Egyptian media. Last week, Iran's Vice-President Ali Akbar Salehi said that the two countries are to restore diplomatic relations after more than 30 years. Salehi made the statements in an interview with Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, saying that Tehran was looking forward to establishing relations of “friendship and brotherhood" with Cairo. “Egypt is the cornerstone of the region and has a special stature in the Arab and Muslim countries ... and we want relations of friendship and brotherhood with it," Salehi said, adding that Tehran hoped to restore “normal" relations with Cairo. “We will pursue this path and restoration of relations depends only on protocol measures." Salehi said Egypt's “revolution opened a new chapter in Egypt's relations with the outside world," adding that the Islamic republic would welcome Morsi later this month in Tehran. The two countries have been at odds since Egypt hosted the ousted Shah following Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
