February 16, 2012
On Thursday February 16th, 2012, a meeting on “The Egyptian Revolution and its effects on the Iran-Egypt relations”, was held at the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies (IMESS). The audiences of this meeting were faculty members and visiting research fellows as well as Ph.D. and Master’s students. Dr. Kayhan Barzegar, Director of the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies, Mr. Alaa Eldin Youssef, Head of the Interest Section of the Arabic Republic of Egypt in Tehran and Mr. Mohammad Ali Mohtadi, a senior research fellow at the Institute shared their views on the Iran-Egypt relations and domestic developments following the Egyptian revolution and the regional issues.
At the beginning, Dr. Barzegar, the chair of the seminar, welcomed the audience. Referring to the fact that Iran and Egypt are brotherly, Muslim countries while elaborating on Iran’s interest to comprise a good relationship with Egypt in various areas, he pointed out that recent Egyptian developments have, for several reasons, provided appropriate opportunities for the strengthening of the relations between these two countries. First, the immediate consequence of the Egyptian revolution is the decline of the concept of “Iran-phobia”, of which during the reign of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt, knowingly, was of the major centers of propagating and disseminating this idea in the Middle East region. Second, the two countries can enhance their political, economic, cultural, and tourism relations. As a matter of fact, both Iran and Egypt enjoy great potentials for the expansion of their relations in the above-mentioned areas. Third, the Egyptian revolution left enormous effects on the regions political-security coalitions. In this respect and with the recent developments in the Arab world, there are great potentials for creating new regional coalitions comprised of Iran, Egypt, and Turkey. Due to their powerful identity, history, and large population, these three countries are recognized as the main regional powers. Fourth, the coalition between Iran and Egypt can wield great pressures on the Israeli regime, enforcing them to comply with regional comprehensive nuclear disarmaments, subsequently contributing to the establishment of sustainable peace in the Middle East. Dr. Barzegar also referred to the Camp David Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel and pointed out that this agreement emboldened the Israeli regime, as a result of which, all efforts for creating sustainable peace in the region failed. As a matter of fact, this Treaty gave the Israelis an upper hand in dealing with regional issues. Emphasizing on the necessity of a new kind of “regionalism” in dealing with regional issues, Dr. Barzegar maintained that the Syrian crisis has, due to Western interferences and frequent references to military confrontation, challenged the idea of regional approaches. In this regard, increscent in Iran-Egypt relations can boost the districts power in order to solve the regional crises.
Afterwards, Mr. Alaa Eldin Youssef elaborated on factors that were effective on the reformist movement of the Egyptian Revolution. In this regard, he mentioned three points. First, that the Egyptian society is young; therefore, it did not coordinate with Mubarak’s regime which did not attempt an appropriate response to the demands of their youth. Second, there was a difference between the demands and needs of the old and young generations; the older generation’s demands were mostly concentrated on social welfare, while the younger generation is more interested in political participation and reform. Despite the fact that Egyptian people faced severe economic hardships, they were mostly interested in their own freedom and social rights. Finally, the stances adopted by the ruling leadership in Egypt, were considered as another important factor in this regard. As a matter of fact, Mubarak’s regime was not inclined towards negation with the Egyptian people over changes and reforms in the country. This regime pursued the same old and traditional approaches in dealing with social realities . Meanwhile, the Egyptian people felt that their country required a management and administration team equipped with modern ideas and outlooks.
In the meantime, Mr. Youssef mentioned several regional developments that had had a great influence on the Egyptian revolution. Some of these regional developments include: opposition with Ghadhafi’s regime and the revolution in Libya; revolutionary movements in Sudan; the indifference of Mubarak’s regime towards the plight of the Palestinians and the sympathy of the Egyptians with the Palestinian nations. Referring to the Camp David Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel, Mr. Youssef stated that currently the regional balance of power has changed, and that the Egyptian government has proved its incompatibility with the long term developments. Elaborating on the relationship between Iran and Egypt, he observed that Iran is not an enemy of Egypt. He mentioned that both countries have numerous commonalities with each other, adding the fact that the Egyptian and Iranian people have had a long history of interaction over various issues. He argued that there is a good potential for the enhancement of relations between Iran and Egypt as well as the fact that the two countries can expand their cooperation, especially in the area of tourism, culture and even cinema. In addition, he pointed out that currently, there is a lack of proper understanding of the status and situation of both countries. Regarding the rapprochement of relations between the two states, he mentioned that more time is required since the two countries have had no official interaction with each other for the past three decades. At the end, he expressed his appreciation of holding such seminars and gatherings and thanked Dr. Barzegar for his positive perspective regarding the existing potentials of cooperation between Iran and Egypt.
The Seminar’s last speaker was Mr. Mohammad Ali Mohtadi, a senior research fellow at the Institute. He noted that the Egyptian revolution had two trends; the first being the “official” trend as a result of which we are witnessing the establishment of the parliament in Egypt through the support of the Egyptian Supreme Military Council. At the same time, the Egyptian Supreme Military Council has pledged to transfer power to a civil government after forming the senate and presidential elections in the country. The second trend is an “unofficial” trend which is pursued by the revolutionary young generation in Egypt. He described the role of the youth in the Egyptian Revolution as vitally important. As a matter of fact, the youth constitute some 60 percent of the Egyptian population and it was this young generation who started the revolt in the Al-Tahrir Square. Referring to the views of some political analysts and observers who believe that the Egyptian youth have been disappointed of the results of their revolution, due to post-revolutionary domestic confrontations in the country, Mr. Mohtadi assessed that Egypt, due to its importance and its effect on other regional countries, differs from the other countries in the Middle East. He stressed that national dignity is vitally important for Egyptians and that they will never tolerate pressures from other countries. Referring to the Camp David Peace Agreement, Mr. Mohtadi maintained that this issue, despite its importance for Egyptians, due to the ongoing situations, is not a top political priority for the country at the moment. He also elaborated on the good feelings of the Egyptian people towards Iranians and that of the negative feelings toward Israelis. The latter has been due to the fact that the policy of normalization of relations between Egypt and Israel has never been successfully implemented. On the contrary, the Egyptian people show great respect for Iranians.
The important point of this Seminar was the fact that all three speakers emphasized on issues, such as, the lack of proper understanding between the two countries, the role of outsiders in undermining the two sides’ relations during the past three decades as well as the necessity of sharing experiences among the elites of both countries so as to strengthen the relations between Tehran and Cairo.
The meeting concluded with questions and answers and finally, the participants took memorial photos.
Report: Fahimeh Ghorbani, Monir Hozouri, Mahsa Nouraei,