IRAN TO RESUME RELATIONS WITH EGYPT
TEHRAN, 6 Jan. (IPS) The Islamic Republic made another step to normality after it announced Tuesday that it has agreed to restore full diplomatic relations with Egypt
The announcement, made by Vice-president for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Abtahi, came one day after Tehran's city council, controlled by pro-conservatives, agreed to remove the name of Khaled Eslambouli, the murderer of the late Mohammad Anwar Sadat, from a Tehran street, thus removing a major obstacle standing in relations between the two great Muslim nations
.
"The two countries have decided to restore ties. It's a definite move and right now they are making the preparations", the British news agency "Reuters" quoted Mr. Abtahi as having indicated.
The Islamic Republic, on order from its former founder andleader, Grand
Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini, cut off all relations with Cairo on 1980 in
order to punish Egypt for having recognized Israel, a State in the Middle East
Iranian ayatollahs want to annihilate.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Hamid Reza Asefi, the senior spokesman of Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry said the removal of the name of Khaled Eslambouli was "crucial" if the Islamic world were to stand up to Israel.
"Relations with Egypt must now be restored, because this will help the Palestinian people, and this is the wish of all Palestinian groups, notably the Jihadi groups", Asefi declared.
In his letter to Tehran city Council, Asefi had stressed that there was need for a "positive initiative on the part of the Islamic republic" towards Egypt in light of the "new regional situation".
"We now consider that the conditions have now been met" for restoring full diplomatic relations, Asefi said.
Observers said the pro-conservatives council decided to change the name after it got positive sign from the office of the leader.
"After accepting American relief missions, this decision to restore ties with Egypt is the second strait move by the conservatives aimed at re-entering the international community by the great door", one Iranian analyst said.
Mr. Asefi also praised comments by Egyptian Foreign affairs Minister Ahmed Maher, suggesting on Monday that the 1978 Camp David peace with Israel be regarded as "merely a thing of the past".
Several members of the council, controlled by conservatives since last February's municipal elections, spoke out against the move, but in the end the body lined up behind the ministry, after it was told that Cairo has reciprocated in changing the name of Pahlavi Street to that of Dr. Mossadeq, Iran’s Prime minister who nationalized the Iranian oil industries in 1953.
But observers said no streets in Cairo or in any other Egyptian citi have ever been named after the deposed Iranian royal dynasty.
Relations between the two countries were particularly bad when Egypt, like all other Arab nations except Syria, supported Iraq during its 1980-1988 war against Iran, but trade and other ties have been improving since the 1990s as Iran sought to improve ties with a number of Arab nations -- notably Saudi Arabia and Algeria.
The normalization with the last Arab state with which Iran did not have normal ties followed a meeting, last December in Geneva between president Mubarak and his Iranian counterpart at the side lines of an international Summit on global communications, and has been invited to Iran in February to attend a D-8 economic summit of developing nations.
A council source here said the foreign ministry had suggested renaming the street after Mohammad al-Durra, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy killed by Israeli gunfire in September 2000 as he was being shielded by his father.
Captured by a television camera, the death has become a symbol of the Palestinian intifada and the harrowing footage is frequently replayed on Iranian state television, the French news agency AFP said.
Khaled Eslamboli Avenue is home to local and foreign businesses including travel agencies and airline offices, several banks, some up-market perfume stores, an anti-vice police headquarters, the office of Agence France-Presse and a park.
However, most locals still refer to it under its former name of "Vozara", meaning "Ministers". ENDS IRAN EGYPT NORMALISED 6104