CAIRO (Anadolu Agency) – The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Iranian Charge d’affaires in Cairo Mugtabi Amani following reports of meetings held between Iranian diplomats and members of Egypt’s embattled Muslim Brotherhood.
“[The move] aims to communicate certain remarks regarding the Iranian mission’s commitment to the rules governing its diplomatic work,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati told Anadolu Agency.
He declined to elaborate, however, regarding the nature of these “remarks.”
Egyptian media has reported that meetings were recently held in Cairo between Iranian diplomats and members of the Muslim Brotherhood – the group from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hails and which Egypt’s army-backed interim government dubbed a “terrorist organization” last December.
Iranian diplomats have yet to comment on the reports.
Iran severed diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1979 following the Islamic revolution that ousted the shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi.
During his single year in office, Morsi had sought Egyptian rapprochement with Iran. In February of last year, when Morsi was still president, then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt.
But relations between Cairo and Tehran soured again last summer, following Morsi’s ouster by the army and the subsequent crackdown on his supporters by Egypt’s army-backed authorities.
In January, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires after Tehran voiced concern over mounting political violence in Egypt, which has been dogged by instability since Morsi’s overthrow.