Egypt leader’s trip to Iran stirs debate in Tehran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s visit to Iran last month is still stirring debate in the Iranian parliament.

Lawmaker Ali Mohammad Bozorgvari lashed out at Morsi on Sunday for failing to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his August visit.

At the time, Morsi attended the meeting of 120-nation Nonaligned Movement in Tehran but stayed in Iran only for a few hours.

Bozorgvari told lawmakers that during a Muslim leaders’ summit in Saudi Arabia earlier in August, Morsi met the Saudi king but didn’t meet Khamenei while in Iran. The lawmaker called the Saudi monarch a “dirty and (pro-) American” ruler.

Morsi’s Iran visit was the first by an Egyptian president in decades. In a speech in Tehran, he attacked Iran’s key ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and called it “oppressive.”

The Egyptian Islamist leader also said Assad has lost legitimacy as president amid the civil war, which activists say has left more than 23,000 people dead in Syria, and should step down.

Also Sunday, foreign ministry official Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Iran would welcome Morsi’s proposal on a four-nation contact group that would spearhead a new peace initiative for Syria’s conflict, reported the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Morsi’s proposal — which named Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran as the four nations to lead the push — was dismissed by Syrian rebels as a dead end because of Iran’s inclusion.

But Amir-Abdollahian also criticized Morsi for his anti-Assad remarks, saying the Egyptian president should have a “realistic attitude” toward developments in Syria.

Syria has come under deep international isolation because of its escalating civil war although it still has the iron support — including weapons shipments — from allies in Russia and Iran.

Iran has repeatedly denied any military support to Syria.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press