Iran: It is Egypt's move to improve relations

Iran's Foreign Minister said in response to a question on Saturday that Iran-Egypt relations issue is beyond sphere of changing a street's name here, or there.

The reference is to an controversial old street named in Iran after Egypt President Anwar al-Sadat's killer. The street names were changed by Iran to remove the reference.

Manouchehr Mottaki reiterated that the issue of street names' change has already been dealt with and finalized, adding, "Egypt is an important country, and since that country's great nation have already asked for restoration of ties with Iran, our president in his visit of Abu Dhabi announced Tehran's readiness for normalizing ties with Cairo, and it is therefore now Egypt's turn to take a step in that regard."

The head of Iran's diplomacy apparatus said "We meant to let the Egyptian nation know Iran's stand about the matter."

He had said that Egypt is an important country and its people have called for re-establishing ties with Iran.

Mottaki said that one of the achievements of the country's foreign diplomacy has been creating opportunities for the Iranians to have presence at international markets.

He reiterated that the possibility for Iranian firms' presence in various parts of the world at a broader level was provided during the course of the past two and a half years.

President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad also during a visit to Abu Dhabi had voiced readiness to resume ties with Egypt and that it was Egypt's turn to take action, Mottaki said.

"We have declared our readiness to this end to Egyptian public," he said.