Tehran resumes diplomatic relations with Cairo

News reports in Tehran said that Egypt and Iran ultimately agreed to resume full diplomatic relations between them. An official source in the Iranian leadership said that the two governments agreed to re-open their two embassies.

The official source added that the decision will be announced during one or two days waiting for the completion of certain administrative measures.

Earlier, the Iranian foreign ministry said that Tehran wants to resume full diplomatic relations with Egypt.

The spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Hameed Rida Asefi, said that relations with Egypt should be resumed now because this will help the Palestinian people. He stressed that all Palestinian resistance movements want this.

The Iranian call to normalize diplomatic relations with Egypt follows a 23 year of severed relations, and came after the government in Cairo gave asylum to the toppled Shah of Iran, Muhammad Rida Bahlawi, in 1980, and its signing of a peace agreement with Israel in 1979.

Relations deteriorated strongly between the two countries after Egypt had supported Iraq in its war against Iran from 1980 to 1988. However bilateral relations between the two countries have been improving since the 1990s.