The office of Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi has denied a recent report that he will visit Iran.
Al-Jazeera reports that presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said last night that there is no trip to Iran on Mursi’s agenda, saying: “These reports are false, and the president has not received any invitations from Tehran.”
The spokesman added that the only invitation extended to Mursi so far is to attend the meeting of African Union leaders in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on July 15 and 16.
The Assafir daily reported yesterday that Mohammad Mursi will travel to Iran to attend the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) meeting, adding that the visit would launch bilateral relations between the two countries.
IRNA reports that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said today that Iran will host the newly elected Egyptian president at the upcoming NAM summit in August.
Salehi said: “Egypt currently chairs NAM and it is to hand over its rotating presidency to Iran during the summit meeting, so we will host Mursi for the event.”
The state of relations between Iran and Egypt has been a hot media topic in the past week because of recent political changes in Egypt.