Iran's vice-president to pay historic visit to Egypt

Iran's vice-president Hamid Baghaei will arrive in Cairo on Wednesday to meet President Mohamed Morsi, the first time in decades that a high-ranking Iranian official has visited Egypt. Egypt and Iran have not had full diplomatic relations since 1980, following Iran's Islamic Revolution and Egypt's recognition of Israel. Baqai will deliver an invitation for Morsi to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) later this month, according to Ahram's Arabic-language website. "The president has yet to decide whether to attend the summit," Morsi's spokesman Yasser Ali was quoted as saying. The NAM summit will take place from 26-31 August in Tehran. An Iranian news agency stirred controversy in June when it quoted Morsi as saying that he sought to restore long-severed ties with Iran, a few days after being elected as Egypt’s first president following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. However, Morsi swiftly moved to deny that he had spoken to Fars news agency.(ahram)