The Iranian foreign minister has announced that Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Egypt, ostensibly for the Non-Aligned Movement conference. This is a big deal as Iran and Egypt have not had diplomatic relations for decades.Earlier this week, Eric Trager also posted about Mubarak's keeping his options open with Iran:
Obama, young and inexperienced, seeks outreach, rainbows, and unicorns; Mubarak, the crusty old dictator, seeks a bidding war. Someone is going to get eaten alive.
Egypt is also planning for the likelihood that the administration won’t inhibit Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In a statement released on Sunday, a spokesperson for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced that, “With regard to attempts to say Iran is a common danger, President Mubarak’s and Egypt’s priority is on the Palestinian issue.” Egypt’s strategic thinking is clear: if Iran is to become a nuclear state, its best option is to ensure that Israel is significantly weakened via the peace process, and thereby prevented from engaging Iran in armed (and perhaps nuclear) conflict. Or, to put it another way, Egypt is shrewdly calculating that its interests are better protected with one regional power than with two - and it has noticed that the Obama administration is more eager to take a hard line with Israel than with Iran, despite Cairo’s own distaste for the latter. [emphasis added]Of course, hand in hand with seeing Israel weakened is maintaining--and strengthening--ties with Iran. The Arab world turned to the US to act as a counter to Iran. Instead, Obama is driving the Arab world into Iran's waiting arms.
Technorati Tag: Obama and Iran.
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