Iran president to arrive in Cairo for 12th OIC summit

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to arrive in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, to attend the 12th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Heading a political delegation, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive in Cairo on Tuesday, February 5.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi invited Ahmadinejad to attend the summit, which is slated for February 2-7. During the summit, Egypt will take over the presidency of the OIC for the next three years.

Director for International Affairs at the Presidential Office Mohammad-Reza Forqani said on January 23 that the Iranian president would take part in the summit in his capacity as the rotating chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which comprises nearly two-thirds of the member states of the UN General Assembly.

Ahmadinejad will meet with the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb and the heads of several Egyptian media.

Iran severed ties with Egypt after Cairo signed the 1978 Camp David Accord with Israel and offered asylum to Iran’s deposed monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. However, Iran and Egypt resumed bilateral ties after the Egyptian revolution in February 2011 which led to the ouster of Egypt’s former dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi visited Iran for the 16th NAM summit in August 2012, which was the first trip by an Egyptian president to Tehran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.