Iran, Egypt Rebuilding Diplomatic Ties

In an effort to normalize relations between the two regional powers, Egypt and Iran are preparing to resume diplomatic ties.

Two officials told The National Daily that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Iran's Ebrahim Raisi have agreed to meet by the end of the year.

It comes after Oman's ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, spent two days in Egypt where he discussed Cairo's relations with Tehran with El Sisi.

The Iranian government, for its part, has said that it wants to improve relations with Egypt.

Earlier this month, Iranian lawmaker Fada-Hossein Maleki, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy committee, said in an interview with Tasnim news agency that talks to bolster ties between Iran and Egypt are being held regularly in Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also told IRNA in early May that “We have always welcomed the improvement of relations between Tehran and Cairo.”

Egypt has not yet commented on Iranian relations, but regional media have reported that the ties are thawing.

Tehran and Cairo’s history of on-off relations predates the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Iran’s relations with Egypt, a close ally of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations, have been fraught since the Shah fell in 1979. His subsequent refuge in Egypt, where he died and was buried in 1980, damaged relations.