Egypt President to Visit Iran

Egypt’s new president Mohamed Morsi is scheduled to attend a summit in Iran at the end of this month, a visit that could resume normal relations for the countries. Cairo and Tehran have had barely any diplomatic relationship since Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and the Islamic revolution shook Iran’s power structure. The visit could also be a strategic move by Egypt to demonstrate that it will remain a major player in the Arab world, according to experts. “This really signals the first response to a popular demand and a way to increase the margin of maneuver for Egyptian foreign policy in the region,” political scientist Mustafa Kamel el-Sayyed told the Associated Press. “Morsi’s visits … show that Egypt’s foreign policy is active again in the region.”