A couple of days ago Iranian President Ahmadinejad visited Egypt for an Islamic conference and apparently used the time to woo Egypt into some kind of alliance between the two countries:
FOX NEWS – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried Thursday to entice Egypt into a new alliance that could reshape the turbulent Middle East, speaking of forging “comprehensive” and “unfettered” relations after decades of distrust.
A warming of ties between the two regional heavyweights could have uncomfortable repercussions for the U.S. and its wealthy Gulf allies, giving Iran a foothold to spread its influence in Egypt. In turn, Egypt could gain an avenue to influence the fate of Syria, a key ally of Iran, as well as economic benefits.
The Iranian president arrived in Egypt on Tuesday to attend a two-day Islamic summit hosted by Egypt’s president, Islamist Mohammed Morsi.
Ahmadinejad’s visit is the first by an Iranian president in 30 years and he used it to launch a charm offensive to woo Egyptians and their leadership. He offered to extend cash-strapped Egypt a credit line and investments. He said his government intended to lift visa requirements for Egyptian tourists and businessmen and he gave a lengthy interview to state television.
In a 90-minute news conference on Thursday, he went the farthest in trying to lure Egypt into a strategic alliance, using flowery language to project an image of two nations — which haven’t had diplomatic ties since 1979 — on the brink of an alliance that would bring them glory and prosperity.
“It is a divine gift to me and the people of Iran that I received the opportunity to visit Egypt,” he told the news conference, held at the residence of Iran’s chief of mission in Egypt, an opulent mansion in Cairo’s upscale Heliopolis district.
He said he expected the volume of bilateral trade to reach $20 billion annually a decade from now and anticipated that many of the eight to 10 million Iranians who holiday abroad every year will come to Egypt.
He dodged a question on whether Iran would be willing to share its nuclear technology with Egypt, saying only that Tehran would have no objections to cooperating with Egypt in “technological, scientific and technical” fields.
“Who deserves to benefit from our science more than our brothers (in Egypt),” he said.
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Egypt was once closely allied to Iran and its former ruling shah. The two countries severed relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution brought rule by Shiite clerics in Iran and Egypt offered refuge to the deposed shah. Ahmadinejad’s visit to Al-Azhar on Tuesday brought him not far from a grandiose Cairo mosque where the shah — despised by Iran’s current rulers — is buried.
Relations further deteriorated after Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
“We love Egypt and no one can take this love away from us,” the Iranian president said Thursday. “Even if relations are cut for a hundred years, no one can make us forget each other. It is a love that comes from the heart and has historic roots.”