First Egyptian- Iranian summit in a quarter century

The Iranian President Muhammad Khatami and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak yesterday in Geneva held a first summit between the two countries, since one quarter of century, on the sideline of the meetings of information society, hosted by Switzerland.

No press statement was issued on issues discussed by the two Presidents in their meeting. Khatami's advisor, Muhammad Ali Abtahi, described in a statement in Tehran this meeting as important.

No meeting was been held between an Iranian president and an Egyptian president ever since the launching of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, when leaders of the revolution rejected the Egyptian- Israeli peace treaty. The highest level of contacts between the two countries at the summit level since the founding of the revolution was made in a telephone call since two years.

Relations between the two countries resumed in 1991 at the level of "interests supervising offices." Cairo insists on changing the name of a street in Tehran, named Khaled al-Ilambuli, a person who took part in the assassination of the late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.

News reports said that the meeting which was postponed several times, came as a realization from both sides on the need of ending the period of coolness, in order to withstand dramatic strategic changes imposed on the region, especially as the two sides are under pressure for making democratic reforms.

The reports explained that this development confirmed what Khatami had said in that the Egyptian- Iranian relations means strategic changes in the region.