Iran not Arabs' enemy : Arab League
The Egyptian head of the Arab League (AL) has rejected attempts to picture Iran as an enemy of Arab nations, saying Egypt is determined to expand ties with the Islamic Republic.
"Iran is not the natural enemy of Arabs,” AL Secretary General Amr Moussa told The Washington Post in an interview published on Tuesday.
The former Egyptian foreign minister emphasized the need for the post-revolution Cairo to improve its relations with Tehran.
“We have a lot to gain by peaceful relations -- or less tense relations -- with Iran," he said.
Following the fall of President Hosni Mubarak's decades-long grip on power in January, Egypt has been reaching out to mend relations with Tehran severed over Cairo's support for Iran's ousted monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the and the Mubarak regime's pro-Israeli policies.
On Iran's nuclear program, Moussa described Iran's nuclear activities as separate from that of Israel, which remains Washington's closest Middle East ally and is believed to be the region's sole wielder of nuclear weapons.
The remark denotes Washington's decades-long support for Tel Aviv's Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity, under which it refuses to admit or deny the possession of nuclear arms.
Moussa, who plans to run in the country's upcoming presidential elections, accused Mubarak of unjustly separating Egypt's relations with the Arab world from the Palestinian issue.
"Egypt conducted its relations in the region in a way that the people did not accept. Egyptian-Arab relations is one thing; the Palestinian question is another."
"Iran is not the natural enemy of Arabs,” AL Secretary General Amr Moussa told The Washington Post in an interview published on Tuesday.
The former Egyptian foreign minister emphasized the need for the post-revolution Cairo to improve its relations with Tehran.
“We have a lot to gain by peaceful relations -- or less tense relations -- with Iran," he said.
Following the fall of President Hosni Mubarak's decades-long grip on power in January, Egypt has been reaching out to mend relations with Tehran severed over Cairo's support for Iran's ousted monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the and the Mubarak regime's pro-Israeli policies.
On Iran's nuclear program, Moussa described Iran's nuclear activities as separate from that of Israel, which remains Washington's closest Middle East ally and is believed to be the region's sole wielder of nuclear weapons.
The remark denotes Washington's decades-long support for Tel Aviv's Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity, under which it refuses to admit or deny the possession of nuclear arms.
Moussa, who plans to run in the country's upcoming presidential elections, accused Mubarak of unjustly separating Egypt's relations with the Arab world from the Palestinian issue.
"Egypt conducted its relations in the region in a way that the people did not accept. Egyptian-Arab relations is one thing; the Palestinian question is another."
