CAIRO - Relations between Al-Azhar, Egypt's Prestigious Islamic Institution, and the Vatican are poised to improve after months of tensions, an official said on Sunday. During on Sunday from a meeting between the head of the oldest learning seat in Sunni Islam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, and Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi, the latter said he had acquainted el-Tayeb with the results of his last week's visit to the Vatican. “I expect bilateral relations to get back to normal in days," he added. Earlier this year, Egypt recalled its ambassador from the Vatican in protest against what it saw as the Holy See's meddling in Egyptian affairs over protection of Christians. Meanwhile, el-Tayeb's advisor for dialogue said that Al-Azhar had expected a real change in the Vatican's stance on Islam and Muslims, otherwise “there will be no return to dialogue”. Pope Benedict XVI met last week with el-Arabi amid concerns over the safety of Christians caught up in the Arab revolutions in the Middle East. Earlier in the month, the Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini discussed how to defend Christian minorities following deadly sectarian attacks in Egypt. Relations between Egypt and the Holy See are tense, Vatican sources said, with any criticism from Benedict XVI often seized on by Islamist groups as an attack against Islam. A New Year's Day bomb attack on a Coptic church in Egypt's northern port of Alexandria that killed 23 people tested relations between the Vatican and Egypt. What Egyptian officials described as Ambassador Lamia Aly Hamada Mekhemar returned to her post mid-February after "positive signs" of reconciliation from the Vatican.
