Expansion of Iran-Egypt ties pro-peace, security and brotherhood

Tehran, Feb 28, IRNA – IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Wednesday expansion of Iran-Egypt relations would ensure peace, security and brotherhood, adding, ˈBroader tourism relations between Iranian and Egyptian nations is a humane and brotherly move.ˈ According to IRNA Wednesday night news team, the Presidential Office information website reported President Ahmadinejad as saying so in a meeting with the visiting Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zazou, adding that the expansion of relations between the two countries can meanwhile focus on deepening the two countriesˈ relations in other fields. Ahmadinejad pointed out that the relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Egypt is of great significance, arguing, ˈWhen the two great, cultural, and civilization-builder nations of Iran and Egypt would be aligned side by side of each other, they would be able to create very great events in favor of everyone, peace, security and brotherhood.ˈ The president said that tourism field is one of the scenes in which the two countiesˈ relations can be deepened and expanded. Ahmadinejad added, ˈCooperation and shared work between Tehran and Cairo in tourism field is a good beginning point which can serve as a platform for numerous blessings for the two nations.ˈ The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran furthermore appreciated the friendly welcome rendered by the Egyptian President, officials and people in the course of the Iranian delegationˈs visit of that country, adding, ˈThe entire world nations are faced with problems and I am sure that the Egyptian nation would solve its entire problems, because that nation is a pioneer nation, and it would therefore emerge victorious.ˈ The Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zazou, too, in the meeting conveyed the Egyptian President Muhammad Morsiˈs warm greetings to his Iranian counterpart, adding that signing a tourism agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United Arab Republic of Egypt as ˈA great move.ˈ Hisham Zazou furthermore emphasized that the two countriesˈ comprehensive relations, too, must be first established and then expanded. The Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zazou on Monday started a visit to Iran, the first by an Egyptian tourism minister in more than three decades, in a fresh sign of thaw in relations between the two countries. Zazou said in remarks published in Cairo that his visit is aimed at encouraging the Iranians to visit four Egyptian cities famous for beaches and antiquities. “The religious tourism is not my agenda at all,” he told the independent newspaper Al Youm Al Saba. Zazou’s visit comes a month after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a historic visit to Egypt where he announced that there will be no visa requirement for Egyptians to enter Iran. Since an Egyptian revolt toppled Hosni Mubarak two years ago, Tehran has been courting Cairo to restore their full relations, severed in 1980. Iranian leaders have been encouraged by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in post-Mubarak Egypt. Zazou said that his talks in Tehran would focus on operating charter flights for Iranian holidaymakers to visit the Egyptian cities of Sharm Al Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor and Aswan only. “Iranians will not be allowed to visit Cairo,” he said. Cairo houses many places revered by Shiˈa Muslims. He added that security arrangements have been made in Egypt to issue entry visas for Iranian visitors as groups. “My visit comes as a ˈpersonal initiativeˈ to increase tourist arrivals, directly helping the country to get hard currency and improve the job market.” The tourism industry, a key foreign currency earner for Egypt, has been hard hit by street turmoil that has hit the country in the past two years.