Egypt Invites Iran’s President to Sisi’s Inauguration

Egypt has invited Iranian President Sheikh Hassan Rouhani to the inauguration ceremony of newly elected President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, a trip that would make him only the second Iranian leader to visit Egypt since the countries severed ties in 1980.

Sisi, the former army chief who last year toppled Egypt’s first freely elected leader, Mohammad Mursi, is expected to be sworn in as president later this week.

“He was invited in both capacities as president of Iran and president of the Non-Aligned Movement,” Egypt’s presidential spokesman Ehab Badawi told Reuters, but said that so far there had been no response.

Iran’s Fars news agency said that Egypt’s representative in Tehran met with Rouhani’s chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, and handed him the official invitation from interim President Adly Mansour.

Under Mursi, ties between the two countries seemed to improve, with the then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becoming the first Iranian leader to visit Egypt in more than three decades. He called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and offered Cairo a loan to ease a deepening economic crisis.

Rouhani, who took power in 2013, has pledged to improve relations with Tehran’s regional neighbors.