Clergy: Ground paved for interactions among Iranian and Egyptian nations

Head of Parliament’s Surveys and Research Center said here Wednesday downfall of dictatorship and establishment of popular system in Egypt has paved ground for increased interactions between great Iranian and Egyptian nations. Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Moballeqi who was speaking at a meeting titled Foundations of Islamic Revolution, attended by a group of Egyptian political and social activist ladies, added, “The Egyptian people have a bright past in the field of religious thinking and human sciences, and those are prides for the Egyptian nation.”  He pointed out that Imam Ali (P) in his letter addressed to Malik Ashtar has praised the Muslim and thoughtful people of Egypt, reiterating, “There are broad potentials and capabilities that can be taken advantage of in establishment of deep ties and sustainable interactions between the Iranian and Egyptian nations.”  The head of the Parliament’s Surveys and Research Center said, “The exalted Islamic faith has always emphasized over unity among the entire Islamic Ummah, brotherhood among the Islamic nations, and growth and blossoming of faith, ethical values and thoughts in the society, and therefore, the entire Muslims must try to preserve Islamic unity and solidarity, particularly against the enemies.”  He reiterated, “The Egyptian nation should take advantage of the emerged opportunity in their country for promotion of faith and ethical values in their society and for the establishment of interactions and unity with the Muslim nations.”  Relations between the two countries collapsed with the glorious victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1978–79.  When the Shah fell, Egypt disapproved of the newly established Islamic Republic of Iran, led by its architect and founder Imam Rouhollah Khomeini (P), and the revolutionary government, too, in return highlighted the full-scale dependence of Sadat’s reactionary regime on the US and the Zionist regimes.  Furthermore, in 1979, Anwar Sadat infuriated the new Iranian revolutionary government by welcoming Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the fugitive dictator of Iran, for a short, but indefinite, stay.  In 1979, Iran officially cut all ties with Egypt. This move was a response to the 1978 Camp David Accords, as well as Egypt's support for Iraq in the course of the Iraqi imposed war against Iran.  In 1981, Iran symbolically dedicated a street to Khalid Islambouli, Sadat's assassin, which was reacted to in Egypt by naming a major square in Cairo after the ousted Iranian dictator, Mohammad Reza.  Trade relations slowly improved during the 1990s and in late 2003, the former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami met with the ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Geneva. Khatami openly invited Mubarak to Iran, but Mubarak refused to make such a trip or normalize relations until all 'public tributes' to Islambouli were 'erased'.  In early 2004, Iran agreed to change the street name to Muhammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was brutally martyred by the racist Zionists in the opening days of the Second Intifada, while taking refuge in the embrace of his pleading and horrified father.  In 2010, leaked diplomatic cables revealed that Mubarak had expressed animosity toward Iran in private meetings, serving his chiefs in Washington and in Tel Aviv.  With the downfall of Mubarak, whose regime was also a big enemy of the Palestinians, the dawn of warm relations between the two ancient nations cracked once again, and the present time interactions between the Iranians, the Egyptians and the Palestinians are just the fruits of the crack of dawn of Egypt’s liberty from the reign of the US and the Zionists’ dark and unpleasant hegemony.