Egypt and Iran : a new page for normal relations !!

I don't know why I have the feeling that Ahmed Nijad is using a new policy towards the Arab world in a way that doesn't go along with his conservative background and supporters especially regarding Egypt.

The controversial Iranian president Nijad once had said that he would like to have a full diplomatic relations with Egypt and the Egyptian foreign ministry responded with huge welcome as it will bring benefit to the region and the Muslim world.

Dr.Larijani was visiting Egypt in the same time of Sarko's Love vacation in Egypt but no one gave attention to the high profile Persian guest or his family who insisted on visiting the Holy Shrines of El-Hussein and El-Saida Zeinab with no guards at all , by the way in case that you do not know Dr.Larijani is now a special representative for the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution Ali Khamenei

And Now he talked with Mubarak for the first time on the phone today in a remarkable move "Wrote on the 22/1/2008"

Already I do not know to where or how categorize this move ,is it among the good relations phase with the Arabs for the Iranians starting with attending the CGI meeting or it is the Egyptian revenge from Israel or the American administration or even the EU ,I do not have a clue.

As you know the relationship between Egypt and Iran was cut since the Islamic revolution and the Egyptian hospitality to the late Shah of Iran whether alive or dead "his tomb is beside his ex-brother in law King Farouk in Egypt" in 1979 Not to mention the Islamic revolution refusal to Camp David and hate to President Sadaat to the level of naming one of Tehran's biggest public square with the name of one of President's Sadaat's assassins "Khaled El-Islamboly" . The relations seemed to broken in a degree that can't accept any reconciliation when Egypt supported Saddam on American recommendation against Iran and when Khomini's stupidity  sent those people who spoiled the Haj season in 1987 and Egypt immediately sent its famous anti-riot forces to save the day and it did save the day in Mecca .

Yet there was a new hope for the polls of the Islamic world since the reformists began to take the rule and the epic reached in the time of President Khatami when there was an exchange for the diplomatic commission and President Khatami personally met President Mubarak in Switzerland from couple of years in a historical short meeting and the Iranian man wanted so much to have a normal relations with Egypt that he didn't care for the conservatives and changed the "Islamboly" square to "El-Intifida" in return for an apology for supporting Iraq in the war , the man didn't ask the rest of the conservative demands from throwing the remains of the Shah or changing the name of "Mosaddeq" street to another one not that's it and President Mubarak I think indirectly apologized

but unfortunately the good days must end quickly

As the conservatives took the rule back again and as they don't like the regime in Egypt as much, they started the new era with producing the movie "Bullets in the body of the Pharaoh" about the assassination of President Sadat anyhow the current Egyptian regime didn't care much for President Sadaat attack ,those fools should have knew that very well that this is not a forbidden zone for the Egyptian regime but for the Egyptian people , many average Egyptian Joes love President Sadat and consider his assassination a terrible thing ,already I do not know how those conservatives will think if they know that the assassination of Sadat was not the brain work of the Islamic group and that the Islamic group was a puppet in the hands of those they consider as enemies !!!

Sometimes I believe it is not about the United States or Israel or the conservatives that are spoiling our relations with the Iranians , there is something wrong that makes its hard to maintain  a healthy relationship with the Iranians , I do not know may be because each country is so strong in its way , we represent opposite directions , they are Shiites who live in the mountains ,we are the Sunni who live in the valley !! I do not  know there is something that makes us fail to maintain a healthy relationship with the Iranians in the modern age for more than a decade to see what I mean just follow me in the historical timeline.

During the monarchy our relations were great in fact it was the best till now thanks to the imperial marriage between the Mohamed Ali Royal family and the Palhavi Family ,when Princess Fawzia Fouad ,the sister of King Farouk married Shabour then Crown Prince of Persia Mohammed Reza Palhavi in 1939,I will not speak much about this marriage , but let me tell you that politics here played a very important role. The Senior Palhavi wanted to build a strong dynasty, he wanted to have allies in the Arab world and there was no other powerful Arab Sunni ally in the Arab world then the Egyptian Royal family  and its young popular King . King Farouk from his side had great ambitions as a king thanks to his advisors during that time , he dreamt to be the King of Muslims and this dream seemed to be true with the Persian Marriage proposal , Sheikh Mustafa El-Margi of Grand Al-Azhar convinced him that it would be an opportunity to unite the Sunni Muslim world and the Shiite Muslim world and so the dazzling beautiful bride of Egypt married the crown prince of Persia.

At first it was a piece of Paradise , it is worth saying that both Palhavi the father and young Farouk were fascinated by the Nazi Germany , the Old Palhavi paid the Price when his son took the rule and sent him to exile in South Africa where as Farouk kept his throne despite he may have lost it too in 1942 . Still relations were strong , very strong ,the sister of the King became the Empress and the mother of the Shah's child , yes she did not give birth to a crown prince but only a princess but things were good . The Shiite Iranians were able to come and celebrate the Ashurah in their significant way that many consider as bloody in Egypt. My grand mother still remembers till now how the El-Hussein Square was bloody red ,how the ambulance cars used to carry the injured and how the fire fighters used to clean the square with their water pipes.

Things began to become ugly not for political reasons but for personal royal reasons , Empress Fawzia ,the closet sister to King Farouk seemed to be suffering and unhappy in the Marble palace , King Farouk made a plan to get her back to Cairo where he was shocked to see his sister very sad and sick ,and thus he made his mind that the Empress should not return to her Empire and stay at home even without her daughter. The Imperial divorce happened in 1948 and with it the first crisis between Iran and Egypt took place , Farouk was angry like hell and decided to teach those heartless Persians lesson for breaking the heart and soul of his sister ,the first victims for this were Fawzia's Persian entourage who were travelling with her , the second victims were the Shiite Pilgrims of Ashurah ; who were shocked to know that they were not welcomed anymore and that their rallies were suspended forever.

Farouk was young and angry , especially that her divorce came with his divorce . Mohammed Reza was young and arrogant , two crazy kids running two nations , here it was not the politics ,it was merely personal reasons , Palhavi was the one to be blamed more than Farouk in my point of view , he owned a jewel that he did not understand its real value .Farouk considered Mohamed Reza as his enemy and Mohamed Reza considered Farouk as his rival.

During that time we should not forget that Farouk gave up the leadership of the Muslim world for the idea of leading the Arab world , the Arabs Vs. Persia , the Iranian-Arab rivalry did not start yet but Farouk was alone in the dark when the Shah was surrounded by the west . again we see here an opposite direction and a rivalry began to take place.

The Egyptian Iranian relations seemed to revive again with the revolution in 1952 ,Farouk is gone and the new rulers in Cairo had excellent relations with the Americans , the shah's allies. In fact some Egyptians did not like this and consider as act to tease the Ex-Empress Ex-Princess Fawzia especially with the Egyptian media coverage in newspapers and Newsreels in Cinema for the Shah's wedding from Empress Soroya . But the honey moon of the Coup officers and the Shah did not last long ,it was very short and this time it was not for Personal reasons , but for many reasons , the revolutionary officers led by Gamal Abd El-Nasser welcomed the Mosaddeq revolution in 1953 in fact it was from the things that inspired Nasser to adopt the nationalization policies in Egypt then came Baghdad 's alliance  ,then came the Suez war then Nasser became the National Hero for the Arab ,and Pan Arabism was revived again to stand like a giant against Imperialism in the Middle east .

Nasser was against the West , the Shah was with the West. The Shah wanted the Gulf to be called the Persian Gulf where as Nasser was calling it the Arabic Gulf. Nasser did not stop at here and so did the Shah ,in fact the Powerful mean beautiful filthy dangerous Egyptian intelligence in time was putting plans with Iranian nationalists to over throw the Empire of Persia , Nasser hated Monarchy so much.

The plans were put but unfortunately Nasser and his intelligence forgot they are working with socialists still Iranian Nationalists who do not like much his Pan Arabism and calling the Persian Gulf as Arabian Gulf !! Yes believe it or not the project did not work because of this .

The hate between Egypt and Iran reached to its real political epic ,the Shah felt that he was alone in the region , his own ally was Israel which opened an Embassy in his Empire.I am not sure of the accuracy of this following info as it came from Israeli sources that the Shah encouraged and called the Israelis to invade Egypt right before 1967, of course the Israelis did not need any invitation to do this ,but this was too much , again there is no Iranian confirmation regarding this Israeli story .

Things began to change in 1973 and here is a riddle to me because of the change in Iran's position towards Egypt , during the war that year the Shah ordered two ships loaded with Oil to head for Egypt to give us supply . I do not know how or why actually this happened despite that I read a summary for "Farah Diba's" first memories that were published in 1970s that during that the Arabic decision to boycott Oil export to the west led to the increase in Oil Prices and that helped Iran a lot the thing that made the Shah sent these two ships with its precious cargos as a salute to Egypt . Again that was written by the Empress in 1970s.

After 1973 we seemed after some time that we are going to have nice natural relations with the Iranians , especially now we moved from the Eastern camp to the Western camp , we were speaking about Peace with the Israelis . But Good times do not always last because just after 6 year from the Glorious war the Islamic revolution erupted in 1979 and the mother irony  of ironies that the Shah did not find any shelter or exile in the world except Egypt whom he once supported its enemies to stay in it and even be buried in its soil , President Sadat said that he did this because of the two ships he sent during the war ,I salute President Sadat because this act showed how great Egypt can be. Since 1979 the relations were cut with Iran because of camp David and the reception the Shah  received in Cairo. In 1980 the Shah died from Cancer and it was strange that the young Persian man who was received by happy Imperial wedding in the great Cairo was the same old Persian man who had this sad republic military funeral in this great Cairo , I saw the funeral of the Shah in Cairo and I was proud that President Sadat made like this ,it is not about the prestige of the Shah ,but it is about the prestige of Egypt and the hospitality of its great kind people. Things to become from bad to worse in our relations it was not only our embassies closed its doors but Khomeini went too far when he blessed the assassination of President Sadat and the terrorist groups in Egypt .

And the rest you know it ,it is just like in the days of 1960s the cold war between the Shah and Nasser but it is just vice versa , they switched the roles, Egypt became on the west American side along with the rest of the Arabs , Iran became on its own now it is backed up with the Eastern side with Syria.

Forget about the Egyptian - Iranian relations in the 1940s where the influence was based upon the Kings and Shahs' moods , since 1950s the Egyptian - Iranian relations were influenced more by other external  parties and forces.

Ironically I see that Egypt and Iran shared significant similarities in 1960s Yes we were and are still republic , Iran was an Empire , but Nasser and Mohamed Reza Palhavi were dictators in their own ways , they had the SAVAK and we had and still have our own SAVAK

Anyhow I know that the diplomatic wishes now from both parties are calling to complete return of official diplomatic relations .  I wish that we do the impossible and break this curse and have normal relations with the Iranians for longer time . May be we will succeed if each of us manage to maintain a healthy relations based on our own people interest and benefit .

Dr. Salim El-Awa , the lawyer and one of the famous Islamic thinker and defender of Islam said that if Egypt ,Iran and Turkey come together , we will form a very powerful union that can stand even in front of the EU and American , well we all are wishing , some wishes come true and some wishes do not .. days will tell if this wish will come true or not

Technorati tags: Egypt, Iran, History, Middle east, Mideast, Islamic World, Sunni, Shiite, Shah, Nasser, King Farouk, Mohammed Reza Palhavi, America, Israel, politics, regional