CAIRO: Iran criticized what it said was Egypt ignoring Israel’s nuclear capabilities when talking about a nuclear-free Middle East, in response to comments made by the Egyptian foreign minister.
An Iranian foreign ministry official told the Fars news agency, “Comparing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program with (Israel) is an illogical and inappropriate move.”
“[Egyptian Foreign Minister] Aboul-Gheit should notice that the Zionist regime’s over 200 nuclear warheads which are under no international supervision are the danger which threatens the interests of the regional people and governments,” the official added.
Aboul Gheit was queried on Iran in a press conference on the sidelines of the National Democratic Party’s annual conference last Saturday. “Egypt does not seek to get nuclear arms because they would not be used and because their costs are huge. But we seek to rid the region of nuclear arms,” Reuters quoted him as saying in response.
The Iranian official had pointed out that Iran was a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and was the first country — according to him — to call for a nuclear-free Middle East. The official also stated that Iran had recently hosted a nuclear disarmament conference entitled “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One”, Fars reported. Israel is not a signatory of the treaty.
Aboul Gheit had also taken an indirect swipe at Iran through its ally Hezbollah, when he said Egypt did not support any militias in Lebanon. Egypt’s relationship with Iran, and by extension Hezbollah, is fraught with tension.
The Egyptian regime is gravely concerned with what it perceives to be pervasive Iranian influence in the region, which it feels is harmful to its interests. It was additionally angered by the discovery of a Hezbollah-affiliated cell operating on Egyptian soil.
The deterioration of the relationship between Iran and Egypt is reflected in the Egyptian stance towards Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. It was only in 2009 that Egypt criticized an IAEA resolution that called for Iran to immediately halt construction on its nuclear facility site in Qom.
The reason given by Egypt was that the resolution did not take into account Israel’s nuclear program as well. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said at the time, “The continuous existence of unannounced nuclear facilities —not under the IAEA safeguards system — in the Middle East represents a threat to the Egyptian national security and the whole region’s security as well.”
