as evidence that Egypt is turning away form the West and will try to play its own game in the Middle East.
Few in the West have cared when President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan or President Jalal Talabani of Iraq have visited Tehran—which both have done numerous times. But the Morsi visit set off a media frenzy with commentators seeing deep meaning.
Egyptian officials, however, were playing down the visit from the moment they announced that Morsi would go to the NAM summit.
First, Morsi’s spokesman, Yasser Ali, said Morsi would spend “only a few hours” in Tehran, not even remaining overnight. He was stopping in Tehran on his way back from China and would swiftly resume his flight to Cairo.
Second, the spokesman said Morsi was only going to Tehran in his role as the outgoing chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and for the purpose of handing the baton of the chairmanship over to Iran. International protocol means that Morsi should make the trip to Tehran for that purpose.
Third, the spokesman said the only topic of the brief visit would be the NAM—nothing else. Morsi would not even discuss Syria, which the spokesman said was the primary topic of Morsi’s trip to China.
Asked by the Arabic daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat if Morsi would discuss resuming diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, the spokesman not only said it would not be discussed, he also said, “The matter is out of the question at this stage.”
The Islamic Republic, on the other hand, was building up the Morsi visit as a game-changer. The Fars news agency, for example, said in a commentary that the visit will “change regional equations.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has long wanted to resume full relations with Iran. Even under President Hosni Mubarak, the Foreign Ministry pressed for full relations. But President Mubarak vetoed that. And now President Morsi appears to have vetoed that as well.
The professional diplomats want full relations with Iran as one element of their effort to make Egypt a major diplomatic player in the region once again. Since even Saudi Arabia and the UAE have full relations with Iran, they do not see why Egypt should not also have full relations. Being able to converse normally with all states in the Middle East will help Egypt win back its normal status as the principal power in the region, they argue.
Egypt lost that standing in 1979 when it signed the peace treaty with Israel. For years afterward, it was treated as a pariah in the Arab world. That outcast role faded, but Mubarak never tried to resume Egypt’s historic position as the leader in the region.
The spokesman also announced that Morsi will visit President Obama September 23 in the United States, when he will undoubtedly be asked his impressions of the Iranian leaders he met.