Cairo: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on the first visit to Cairo by an Iranian leader in more than three decades, called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and said he had offered the cash-strapped Arab state a loan, but drew a cool response.
Al Ahram daily quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in an interview that Iran had offered to lend money to Egypt despite being under international economic sanctions over its nuclear programme.
“I have said previously that we can offer a big credit line to the Egyptian brothers, and many services,” he said. He did not say if there had been any response.
Ahmadinejad said outside forces were trying to prevent a rapprochement between the Middle East’s two most populous nations.
“We must all understand that the only option is to set up this alliance because it is in the interests of the Egyptian and Iranian peoples and other nations of the region,” he was quoted as saying.
The two countries have not restored diplomatic ties since Egypt overthrew Hosni Mubarak in 2011, but its first Islamist president, Mohammad Mursi, gave Ahmadinejad a red-carpet welcome on Tuesday to a summit of Islamic nations.
“There are those striving to prevent these two great countries from coming together despite the fact that the region’s problems require this meeting, especially the Palestinian question,” Ahmadinejad said.
Egypt’s foreign minister played down the significance of the visit, saying that the Iranian leader, one of several heads of state to get the red-carpet treatment, was in Cairo chiefly for the Islamic summit, “so it’s just a normal procedure. That’s all.”
