Ahmadinejad Accepts Invite to Visit Egypt

05/02/2008 Al-Manar TV

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted an invitation from Cairo to visit Egypt sometime over the next month. This mark the first time an Iranian president will visit Egypt since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The invitation was extended to Ahmadinejad through the Iranian speaker of parliament, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, who held talks in Cairo over the weekend with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The Iranian student news agency ISNA reported on Monday that Ahmadinejad plans to visit all Arab states, including Egypt.

The announcement about Ahmadinejad's planned visit, as well as the recent trips made by other Iranian officials, demonstrates a change in platform for Egypt. Signs of Egypt's interest in establishing ties with Iran were evident in the meetings Iran's Parliament Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel had with Egyptian academics and the political elite.
As he was leaving Egypt, Haddad-Adel made clear Iran's desire to improve relations with Cairo: "Our meetings with senior officials in Egypt were held in a friendly atmosphere. We are ready for additional cooperation between the two countries."

In addition to Haddad-Adel, Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani also made a recent visit to Cairo, on behalf of Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khameini. Larijani met with high-level Egyptian personalities, as well as diplomats and representatives from the country's professional unions.