Ahmadinejad Invites Morsi For Tehran Summit; Iran Appears Keen On Reestablishing Egypt Ties After 30 Years

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has invited his newly elected Egyptian counterpart, Mohamed Morsi, to a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations to be held in Tehran in late August to promote undeniable and constructive cooperation between the nations, an Iranian government statement said.

In a telephone conversation Wednesday, Ahmadinejad congratulated Morsi for his victory in the presidential elections and invited him to the summit, the Iranian media reported.

Morsi replied saying he hoped to meet Ahmadinejad during the summit.

Ahmadinejad's official site also quoted Morsi: The Non-Aligned Movement is an important meeting which is like an umbrella covering many Islamic and non-Islamic nations, and I hope to witness the realization this international organization's aims.

The NAM group of nations, who consider themselves not aligned officially with or against any major power bloc, will hold their 16th summit in Tehran from Aug 26 to 31, after an interval of three years.

Egypt currently holds the group's rotating presidency and is expected to hand it over to Iran at the summit.

Iran had called for stronger ties with Egypt, after Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi won the election last month.

Bilateral ties between Egypt, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, and Iran with its Shiite majority, has been almost non-existent for the past 30 years, ever since Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the peace deal with Israel following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The ties were further strained in the 1980s when Egypt supported Iraq in its war against Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said that Tehran is ready to promote bilateral ties with Egypt to the ambassadorial level.

The election of Morsi to serve as the Egyptian president has opened a new chapter in the country's foreign policy, Salehi was quoted as saying by Iranian media early this week.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry hopes that the outlook for Egypt's foreign policy will be better than the past and the new government of this country will take more serious measures to establish more expansive and deeper ties with the Muslim world, he said.

Morsi, who resigned from the Brotherhood to take the top job, has said that he has plans to change his pro-Hamas, anti-Zionist, anti-Copt tune to transform Egypt into a truly democratic nation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week sent a letter to Morsi, urging him to maintain peace between the two countries, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Netanyahu, reportedly, stressed Israel's desire to continue cooperation and to strengthen the peace and emphasized that honoring the (peace) agreement is in the interest of both countries, Haaretz reported, citing an Israeli source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Netanyahu congratulated Morsi on his election victory and offered to cooperate with the new government in Cairo and expressed hope that both parties would observe the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the report said.