Morsy on path-breaking visit to China, Iran

Atul Aneja

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy is heading for China and Iran — a
path-breaking visit that is unlikely to please the United States, which
has gone overboard to cultivate relationship with the new leadership in
Cairo.

Mr. Morsy will land in Beijing on Monday, before heading for Tehran to
attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) there. This will be
the first visit by an Egyptian President to Iran since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.

The importance of the visit has not been lost on the Iranians.

“Since long time ago, Egypt and Iran as two big Muslim countries have
had close ties and played key roles in the Islamic civilisation,”
observed Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Majlis, Iran’s Parliament.

Iran-Egypt relationship had greatly soured during the regime of the
former President, Hosni Mubarak — evident from the absence of embassies
in their respective capitals.

Analysts point out that the region’s geopolitical map may fundamentally
realign if the Egyptian President’s visit to Tehran leads to a robust
re-engagement between the two heavyweights. Prior to Mr. Mubarak’s exit,
Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hizbollah had been facing-off with a pro-West
alliance of Egypt and the Gulf monarchies led by Saudi Arabia. The sharp
antagonistic divisions among the Arab and Muslim countries of the
region had also well suited Israel, which, since the 1973 Arab-Israeli
war, has not been threatened by a united front of regional countries.

Behind the scenes


There has been considerable behind-the-scenes preparation for Mr.
Morsy’s visit. Last week, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mr.
Morsy confabulated effusively in Makkah on the sidelines of the
emergency summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Breaking ranks



While still in Makkah, Mr. Morsy broke ranks with host Saudi Arabia and
Qatar by proposing a “contact group” on Syria, formed by a coalition of
Tehran, Cairo, Ankara and Riyadh. Iran immediately welcomed the Egyptian
proposal, with Iranian foreign policy spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast
praising the initiative as the means “to review and follow up on
[regional] issues so that peace would be established in the region as
soon as possible and tensions would ease”.

New ties


A senior official from the Muslim Brotherhood said on condition of
anonymity that the new Egyptian leadership was seeking a deeper
engagement with the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS)
grouping, and Mr. Morsy’s visit to Beijing at the invitation of his
counterpart, Hu Jintao, was a step in that direction. The Syrian
situation as well as the Palestinian question is likely to feature
prominently during Mr. Morsy’s stay. Commercial exchanges as well as
opening the floodgates for Chinese investments in post-Mubarak Egypt
would be another possible focal area of discussions.

U.S. efforts


Observers point out that the two visits follow a feverish effort by the
Obama administration to woo the Muslim Brothers. Within the space of one
month since Mr. Morsy was elected President, three top Obama
administration officials have called on the new Egyptian President in
Cairo.

These include Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, whose visit was
followed by a trip to Cairo by his boss, Hillary Clinton. Also in the
queue shortly afterwards was Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who was
well positioned to engage Egypt’s civilian as well as military
leadership. However, Mr. Morsy surprised all when he purged the Mubarak
era military top brass, headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the
Defence Minister.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3799836.ece