CAIRO/DUBAI: Egypt has invited Iranian President Hassan Rowhani to the inauguration ceremony of newly elected President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, a trip that would make him only the second Iranian leader to visit Egypt since the countries severed ties in 1980.
Sisi is expected to be sworn in as president later this week after official results confirmed he won a landslide victory in last month’s election.
Iran welcomed the 2011 uprising that led to the downfall of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, and considered it an “Islamic awakening” given that it was followed by Islamist rule.
When the army ousted Mursi from power in July last year, Tehran criticised the move, drawing a hostile response from Cairo.
“He was invited in both capacities as president of Iran and president of the Non-Aligned Movement,” Egypt’s presidential spokesman Ehab Badawi said, but said that so far there had been no response.
REUTERS
