Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi
will attend a summit in Iran later
this month, a presidential official
said on Saturday, the first such trip
for an Egyptian leader since relations
with Tehran deteriorated decades ago.
The visit could mark a thaw
between the two countries after
years of enmity, especially since
Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty
with Israel and Iran underwent its
Islamic revolution. Under Morsi’s
predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Egypt,
predominantly Sunni Muslim, sided
with Saudi Arabia and other
Sunni-dominated Arab states in
trying to isolate Shiite-led Iran.
The official said that Morsi
will visit Tehran on Aug. 30 on
his way back from China to attend
the Non-Aligned Movement Summit,
where Egypt will transfer the
movement’s rotating leadership to
Iran. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not yet
authorized to make the
announcement.
The trip is no surprise — it
came days after Morsi included
Iran in a proposal for a contact
group to mediate an end to
Syria’s escalating civil war.
The proposal for the group,
which includes Egypt, Saudi
Arabia and Turkey, was made at
the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation summit in Saudi
Arabia’s holy city of Mecca.