Iran ready to revive Egypt ties, president says

TEHRAN, May 15 (Reuters) Iran is ready to revive ties with Egypt and open an embassy there, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, defending comments which have angered some of his hardline supporters.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the Iranian president's statement was ''positive'', the official Middle East News Agency reported in Cairo.

It quoted Aboul Gheit as saying he would discuss the issue when he next meets Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

The two Middle East heavyweights have not had full diplomatic relations since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, but they do have diplomatic contacts, usually limited to international gatherings.

Overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim Egypt and Shi'ite Iran have edged towards resuming normal ties in recent years, but Iran has yet to change a Tehran street name which honours the assassin of Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian leader who made peace with Israel.

''Iran and Egypt are two countries with old civilizations and they are influential and ... want friendly relations,'' Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

''We believe Egypt is a part of the Islamic body and the two nations feel like brothers,'' he said. ''If the Egyptian government announces readiness we will open our embassy in this country on the same day.'' He was speaking at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport after returning from a visit to Gulf neighbours Oman and the United Arab Emirates, where similar comments at a news conference yesterday sparked criticism by some hardline Iranian newspapers.

Ahmadinejad swept to power in 2005 pledging to return to the ideals of the Iranian revolution. He is known for his fiery anti-Western speeches but his government this week agreed to hold talks soon with US officials on the situation in Iraq.

''Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ... is retreating from revolutionary values especially in the foreign policy field,'' said Iran's Hezbollah newspaper.

Added the Jomhouri-ye Eslami daily: ''Mr Ahmadinejad's statement ... about his readiness to establish relations with Egypt is another impatient statement which is not in accordance with the dignity of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.'' Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak angered Shi'ite Muslims across the Middle East last year when he said they were more loyal to Iran than to their own countries.

REUTERS TB RK2301