Ahmadinejad to make first Egypt visit by Iran head in decades

 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Cairo next week, becoming the first Iranian president to travel to Egypt since Iran's 1979 revolution ruptured diplomatic ties between the two most populous countries in the Middle East.   

Ahmadinejad will head Iran's delegation to a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo, said Amani Mojtaba, head of Iran's interest section in Cairo, which it maintains in the absence of an official embassy.   

"I hope that Iranian-Egyptian relations return to the full diplomatic level," he told Reuters.   

The trip follows a visit by Egypt's new Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to Iran in August last year, when the two leaders agreed to reopen official embassies.   

Tehran broke off relations with Cairo in 1980, a year after both Iran's revolution and Egypt's peace agreement with Israel.


In Egypt:

Egypt's prime minister on Saturday condemned recent attacks by protesters on state property and said no government can effectively govern in the current climate.In a brief statement on TV, Hisham Kandil also said the street violence and political unrest that has engulfed the country for more than a week is threatening the nation's already ailing economy.

His comments come a day after protesters clashed with security forces in the central Tahrir Square in Cairo and outside the presidential palace.

The streets outside the presidential palace were a scene of mayhem for hours into the night.Security forces pumped volley after volley of tear gas, set fire to protester tents and at one point dragged a protester to the ground, stripped him and beat him.Protesters burned tires and hurled stones and fireworks.


REUTERS/AP