Daily Times

TEHRAN: Iran has summoned Egypt’s top envoy in Tehran to strongly protest against the attendance of the Egyptian lawmakers at an annual rally of an exiled opposition group on Saturday, state media said.

An Iranian foreign ministry official called the presence of a group of Egyptian MPs at the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) gathering in France “a clear interference in our domestic affairs”. Tehran accused the parliamentarians of supporting the “militant group”, which includes the former rebel People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK).

“Egyptian authorities are expected to adopt responsible and principled policies and take steps toward preserving peace and stability in the region,” the official IRNA news agency quoted the official as saying. It did not identify the envoy but Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Tehran is headed by Khalid Emara.

An Egyptian lawmaker and member of the foreign relations parliamentary committee Ibrahim Abdel Wahab confirmed that he had participated in the rally along with nine other Egyptian MPs and public figures. “This is not a formal participation. We received personal invitations and decided to participate to support the Iranian opposition,” he told AFP from Paris without giving more details.

He added that the parliament deputy speaker Suleiman Wahdan and another member of the defence and national security committee had also attended the rally. The Egyptian foreign ministry said on its Facebook page that the MPs who attended the rally did not represent the Egyptian government.

Their participation was not in any official capacity, the statement added, stressing that the Egyptian parliament is “fully independent as it represents the legislature power which is independent from the executive power”. Tehran broke off diplomatic relations with Cairo in 1980, the year after Iran’s Islamic revolution, in protest at Egypt’s signing of a peace treaty with Israel and hosting of the deposed shah.

The two countries maintain only interests sections in each other’s capitals. The envoy for his part stressed that Egypt does not meddle in the domestic affairs of other countries, IRNA reported. Tehran has also summoned the French ambassador over the annual rally held at Le Bourget, near Paris, by the NCRI, which said that 100,000 Iranians had attended.