Iran, Egypt To Bury The Hatchet?

Marwan Al Kabalan writes: Many thorny issues need to be addressed by leaders of the two countries before normalisation of ties
This commentary was published in The Gulf News on 22/04/2011

For the first time in 30 years, Egypt and Iran have agreed to establish diplomatic relations. Following the January 25 revolution, which ended in the removal of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the two countries have exchanged goodwill gestures, expressing willingness to bury their three-decade-old differences.

Indeed, the removal of Mubarak, a long-standing foe of Iran's regional ambitions, may facilitate the establishment of normal relations between Tehran and Cairo; yet, given the fundamental clash of interests between the two countries that might not be as easy as many might expect.

Until recently in fact the two countries were involved in a secret war to destabilise one another. Several past attempts to overcome the thorny issues between the two regimes led almost to nothing. In late 2003, Cairo and Tehran were very close to restoring full diplomatic ties, broken off after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Iran's refusal to take down a large mural of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's assassin, Khalid Al Islambouli, hindered progress in that direction. Al Islambouli was one of the army officers who killed Sadat during a military parade in 1981. He was sentenced to death soon thereafter. Iran considered Al Islambouli a martyr and has hence honoured him by naming a street in Tehran after him.

This was in fact the nominal reason that hindered the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two nations. Tehran cut diplomatic ties after Cairo signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979 and provided asylum to the deposed Iranian shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Fearing its declared agenda to export revolutionary ideas to the entire region, Egypt sided with Iraq in its war with Iran. Egyptian soldiers and officers fought and held back the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Basra, south of Iraq, for weeks during the major fighting in early 1986.
Sea change

Following the US invasion of Iraq, then president Mohammad Khatami called for the resumption of diplomatic relations with Egypt. US pressure on Cairo to stick with the policy of isolating Iran, undermined Khatami's efforts. Since then the Cairo-Tehran relations have in fact been driven in opposite directions.

The ascendance of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in August 2005 led to further deterioration in the relationship between the two countries.

Egypt, alongside other Arab countries, was alarmed at the rising Iranian influence in the region, particularly in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. To counteract Iran's quest for regional hegemony, Egypt joined an American-backed alliance of Sunni Arab states. Cairo was in fact trying to contain the sea change which engulfed the region after the fall of Saddam Hussain and the transfer of power from Sunni to Shiites in Iraq. The clash of interests was also tightly linked to the gradual decline of Cairo's regional influence and the collapse of its pan-Arab agenda.

Iran's increasing interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries has, thus, been strongly criticised by Cairo. Iran was accused of trying to use Arab causes to advance its interests and enhance its position ahead of any future deal with the West over its nuclear programme.

In the summer of 2006, the Egyptian government denounced the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, leading to massive Israeli aerial bombardment against Lebanon.

Egypt described Hezbollah's action as ‘irresponsible and uncalculated adventure', carried out at the behest of Tehran. Iran responded by accusing Egypt of being a lackey of the Americans.

When Mubarak announced in September 2006 that he would be seeking nuclear energy for civilian purposes, his announcement was widely interpreted as a response to Iran's quest for nuclear power.

Reviving Egypt's nuclear programme, notwithstanding its peaceful nature, was meant to suggest that Cairo would not stand idle watching Tehran possessing nuclear power and hence strengthen its regional position at the expense of Egypt.

The latest crisis between the two counties broke out over the so-called ‘Hezbollah cell'. In April 2009, Egypt announced that it had detained 49 Hezbollah members, believed to have been planning to carry out attacks against Israeli tourists at resorts in the Sinai Peninsula. The announcement was seen as a new chapter in the conflict for regional dominance between Egypt and Iran.

Earlier that year, tension between the two countries escalated after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians. Iran-backed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah urged the Egyptian army to overthrow the Mubarak government for its inertia to stop the fighting and open its border with the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian response was hysterical. Pro-government media accused Nasrallah of being an "Iranian agent who seeks to advance the interests of his masters in Tehran".

Given this difficult history, many thorny issues need to be addressed by the leaders of the two countries before normalisation of relationships is reached. The removal of Mubarak must be therefore seen as a one little hurdle amongst many that need to be surmounted. 

Dr Marwan Al Kabalan is Lecturer in Media and International Relations, faculty of Political Science and Media, Damascus University, Syria.