Egypt: No alliance with Iran and Syria

Egyptian foreign minister Amr Moussa has denied intent to set up an Egyptian-Iranian-syrian alliance to counter Israeli-Turkish alliance. "We neither favor axes nor joint them," the minister told Al-Hayat newspaper in an interview published two days ago.

"Improving ties with Iran is Egypt's and President Mubarak's option" he said, and expressed optimism over the future of relations with Iranian president Khatami.

Moussa described his recent visit to Tehran as very useful and said the visit had made ties between Egypt and Iran clear and somewhat warm. Moussa led Egypt's delegation to the Islamic summit hosted last week in Tehran.

"We are two big countries in this region, and we see it as necessary to have good ties," said Moussa. He added, however, that some differences remained, and had to be sorted out. The minister did not elaborate, "There were some factors keeping us apart which we are handling because we want close ties to serve both countries and stability in the Middle East as a whole," Al-Gomhoria daily said.