Egypt's President-elect Mohammad Mursi said he wanted to expand ties with Tehran to create a “strategic balance” in the region.

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Egypt's President-elect Mohammad Mursi said he wanted to expand ties with Tehran to create a “strategic balance” in the region. In an interview with Iran's Fars news agency published on Monday, Mursi said that better relations with Tehran “will create a balance of pressure in the region, and this is part of my program.” Diplomatic relations between the two countries have improved after being severed more than 30 years, thanks to the popular uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak last year. Asked to comment on reports that, if elected, his first state visit would be to Saudi Arabia, Mursi said: "I didn't say such thing and until now my first international visits following my victory in the elections have not been determined". Fars reporter in Cairo made the exclusive interview with Mursi minutes before his victory in the presidential elections was announced. Mursi said he wants to "reconsider" the peace deal with the Zionist entity. “We will reconsider the Camp David Accord but through state institutions and the government,” Mursi said. The Iranian foreign ministry congratulated in a statement issued on Sunday the Egyptian people and government on the election of Mursi. Iran's armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi was quoted by IRNA on Monday as echoing the Muslim Brotherhood's rejection of moves by Egypt's military to dissolve the parliament and to give itself a greater say over government policy and the constitution. “The actions of the military council in Egypt, which considers itself to be selected by Mubarak, lack legal validity and political legitimacy,” Firouzabadi said.

Source: Agencies 25-06-2012 - 12:42 Last updated 25-06-2012 - 12:42

A 'qualified' victory ...

"... The secrets of behind-the-scenes bargaining between the Brotherhood and Scaf remain to be told. It will be surprising if the generals do not retain their financial clout and privileges, and their powers to make war, conduct foreign policy and maintain internal security – the holy trinity of Egypt's deep state. It will suit them perfectly to blame the civilian president for the parlous state of the economy.In a curious twist of recent days, Shafiq supporters accused the US of quietly encouraging a Morsi win – as a way of cementing the dominance of Scaf and securing the strategically important peace treaty with Israel. 

On balance, Morsi's victory is the better outcome. It creates the possibility of continued bargaining between the army and the Brotherhood, whose well-organised rank and file remain ready to take to the streets to maintain pressure on the generals. A Shafiq win would have immediately reignited protests and made it easier for the army to crack down in the name of stability. 

Morsi's biggest challenges start now. Will he stand up to the army? His claim to represent "all Egyptians" will be tested by how he reaches out to the liberal and independent candidates who fell away in the first presidential round.
Who will he choose as a prime minister? A non-Brotherhood figure – Mohamed ElBaradei is being mooted – could signal pluralism and help deflect heat on the economy. Nervous Copts and women will need reassuring. Not everyone believes the Brotherhood's newfound spirit of inclusiveness: after all, it backed Scaf's transition plan for most of last year and then reneged on its own promises not to field too many candidates for parliament or any for the presidency.
Morsi's victory is not the end of Egypt's turbulent post-revolutionary game. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning."

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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