Iran makes offer to improve ties with Arabs, Egyptian leader discussing with Gulf allies

Iran makes new bid for improving ties with Arabs

CAIRO — Iran made a new offer for resolving tensions with Arab nations, an Egyptian official said Monday, and Egypt’s president flew to the Persian Gulf in an unexpected visit to discuss the proposal with his allies.

U.S.-allied Arab nations, which are mainly led by Sunni Muslims, have been deeply concerned over the rising power of mainly Shiite and Persian Iran in the Middle East. They deeply oppose its support of militant groups like the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah and are worried over its nuclear program.

They have also been treading a fine line in the West’s confrontation with Iran. Arab nations fear instability and fallout across the region if Israel or the United States should take military action to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions. At the same time, they worry that Washington could make concessions to Iran in any dialogue that would boost Tehran’s regional strength over theirs.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met for two hours on Sunday with Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, who is also a top aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Larijani described the talks with Mubarak as “positive and very good” and said Tehran’s backing for Hamas is not aimed at undermining Egypt’s mediation between Hamas and its Palestinian Fatah rivals.

An Egyptian official said Larijani handed Mubarak a message from the Iranian leadership “dealing with the Iranian-Arab relations.”

“The message is offering a new Iranian approach to resolve outstanding issues,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. He did not provide details.

Mubarak began a previously unannounced trip to the Gulf on Monday to visit the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. His talks there will deal with his meetings with Larijani and explore ways for the Arab world to “avert the dangers of the Western-Iranian confrontation,” presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad said.

Egypt’s state news agency MENA said the Iranian nuclear issue will also be discussed.

Iran is making a new push to restore ties with Egypt, cut since Cairo signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979 and provided asylum for the deposed Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Iranian hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated an offer on Wednesday to restore ties and open an embassy in Cairo.

But Egypt has rejected the overtures, maintaining that normal ties with Iran would come only after Iran stopped meddling in internal affairs of Arab countries. It has demanded that Iran take down a large mural in Tehran of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s assassin, Khaled el-Islambouli, and change the name of a street honoring him.