Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi plans to resume normal relations with Iran to ensure strategic balance in the region.
“It is necessary to restore normal relations with Iran on a mutual beneficial basis. This will ensure the strategic balance in the region. That is one of my election program theses,” Morsi said in an interview with Iran’s news agency FARS.
On Sunday, Egypt's electoral commission announced the official results of the presidential elections. Morsi won the election after garnering 51.7 percent of the vote.
Relations between the two countries were broken following the signing by Egypt in 1978 of a peace treaty with Israel. Since then, diplomatic relations between the two countries have been represented by special offices that protect the interests of their citizens. After the Egyptian revolution in February 2011, Tehran has insisted on resuming diplomatic relations in full and this has been particularly targeted since the legalization of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt and their success on the political arena. After the restoration of diplomatic ties, Iran has promised to immediately provide economic support to Egypt so that Cairo could counterbalance pressure from the United States.
