Cairo cool to Tehran's clinch
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO - Despite several goodwill gestures from Iran, Egypt appears adamant in
its refusal to re-establish diplomatic relations - frozen for almost 30 years -
with the Persian-speaking Islamic republic. According to opposition figures,
Cairo's insistence on keeping Iran at arm's length comes largely as a result of
US prompting.
"In line with US directives, Egypt continues to seize upon superficial reasons
to justify its refusal to normalize relations with Tehran," Hamdi Hassan,
member of parliament from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement told
Inter Press Service.
Predictions of looming Egypt-Iran rapprochement were dashed
with the appearance in July of an Iranian documentary film that portrayed late
Egyptian president Anwar Sadat as a "traitor" for signing the 1979 Camp David
peace agreement with Israel. The film, entitled Execution of a Pharaoh,
praised Khaled al-Islambouli, who assassinated Sadat two years later, as "a
martyr".
The documentary met with an unusually strong reaction from Egyptian
officialdom. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit rushed to condemn the film "in
the strongest possible terms". He said, "It is unfortunate that an Islamic
society such as Iran would attack this great national leader [Sadat]."
Egypt has not had official relations with Iran since the latter immediately cut
diplomatic ties following the Camp David deal. Unofficial relations remained
hostile through most of the 1980s, when Egypt supported Saddam Hussein's Iraq
against revolutionary Iran in a drawn-out war of attrition.
In the years since, Egypt's closeness to the US - which has made no secret of
its desire to isolate, if not attack, Iran - has kept relations between Egypt
and Iran frosty. Nevertheless, a number of recent developments had prompted
speculation that a restoration of diplomatic ties was imminent.
Last year, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad explicitly stated his country's
readiness to re-establish official bilateral relations. "If the Egyptian
government was willing, we would open our embassy in Cairo the same day,"
Ahmadinejad said.
Egypt never formally responded to the proposal, but Ahmadinejad's offer was
followed by several visits to the Egyptian capital by top-level Iranian
officials.
In January, a conference of the Organization of Islamic Countries in Cairo was
attended by Iranian parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Adel. The visit was the
first to Egypt by a senior Iranian parliamentary official since the 1970s.
In light of such high-level contact, many were surprised by Egypt's vehement
reaction to the documentary film.
Iranian officials tried to distance themselves from the film, pointing out that
it was never broadcast on state television. An Iranian diplomat told local
media that the documentary had been "produced by independent bodies" and "did
not represent the official position of the Islamic republic".
Nevertheless, Egyptian officials have continued to register their displeasure.
The strongest censure came from Mohammed al-Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of Egypt's
al-Azhar religious establishment, which - although it ultimately answers to the
government - represents the highest religious authority in the Sunni Muslim
world. In mid-July, Tantawi issued a statement in which he accused the
producers of the film of committing the "the most heinous of crimes", while
stressing Sadat's status as martyr.
In early August, it emerged that the contentious film did not, in fact, have
any connection to the Iranian government. As it turned out, Execution of a
Pharaoh was originally produced by satellite news channel al-Jazeera,
and was later dubbed into Persian by an independent Iranian religious
institution that took the liberty of inserting the word "traitor" before
Sadat's name.
Despite Iran's apparent vindication, the Egyptian government refrained from
issuing any formal apologies or retractions for its hasty recriminations.
But in another apparent gesture of goodwill, Iran extended a formal invitation
last month to open a branch of the al-Azhar University in the Iranian capital
with the aim of "reinforcing Egypt-Iran relations and promoting understanding
between the Sunni and Shi'ite denominations of Islam".
Tantawi - still holding the Iranian government responsible for the film despite
proof to the contrary - rejected the offer. "There is no intention to open a
branch of al-Azhar in Tehran," he was quoted as saying by the independent daily
al-Dustour. "Al-Azhar has decided to cut relations with Iran because of the
film."
In the weeks since, the local press has been rife with speculation over the
reasons behind Egypt's unusually harsh approach to Iran.
"Even though the film was not associated with the [Iranian] state, the foreign
minister's aggressive response gave the green light to activate the dispute
between Sunni and Shi'ite," political analyst Mohammed Abdel-Hadi wrote in the
August 27 edition of independent daily al-Masri al-Youm. "It promoted the idea
that official rapprochement between Egypt and Iran remains an impossibility."
Other critics say Egypt's intolerant attitude towards Iran springs from its
traditional subservience to the US.
"The government, following US policy directives, is always looking for excuses
not to re-establish relations with Iran," Magdi Hussein, secretary general of
Egypt's frozen Islamist-leaning Labour Party, said. "Even though Tehran bore no
responsibility for the film, the government exaggerated the issue in order to
whip up hostility against the Iranians."
Hussein said Tantawi's particularly vehement statements "are not being taken
seriously by anyone". Tantawi, he added, "has lost all religious credibility
because his opinions only reflect the desires of the ruling regime".
Hassan agreed that Egypt's knee-jerk reaction to the documentary revealed an
"unreasonable" reluctance to deal with Iran.
"Iran has extended a number of goodwill gestures to Egypt and has even
expressed its desire to re-establish full diplomatic ties," he said. "Yet Egypt
has not taken a single step to improve relations."
Hassan added a restoration of Egypt-Iran relations could only be realized "when
Egypt is master of its own foreign policy". Until then, he said, "Cairo's
dealings with Tehran will continue to simply conform to US-Zionist dictates."
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