TEHRAN Egyptian newspaper Al-Shaab has put the main blame on Egyptian officials for a setback on normalization of political relations between Cairo and Tehran. The paper, quoted by IRNA, said the public opinion in Egypt was taken by surprise over recent statements which have reversed the diplomatic efforts in recent months to improve Egyptian-Iranian ties. The first surprise was, said the Cairo newspaper, statements made by Osama al-Baz, the political advisor to President Hosni Mubarak, to Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat during his recent trip to London. Al-Baz considered conditions for promotion of ties repeating such allegations against Iran as alleged Iranian support for terrorism, interference in internal affairs of Persian Gulf Arab states and the issue of three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf. He also made similar statements to the Egyptian press.

The surpirse in Dr. Osama al-Baz's conditions is that they come after a period of calm and even big positive development that led to ripeness in these ties, said Al-Shaab. The Arab paper noted that Osama al-Baz's remarks overturned statements made by President Hosni Mubarak himself and by Foreign Minister Amr Moussa after the Islamic summit in Tehran that there are no Egyptian conditions for normalization of ties with Iran. Then, said Al-Shaab, came the second surprise when President Mubarak announced that he cannot establish relations with Iran except after he was totally convinced that it was not a (Iranian) maneuver.

There are several evidence and signs which reflect the presence of hidden hands - especially inside Egypt - which were and are behind this reversal, commented the paper. It was not appropriate for Egypt to repeat accusations against Iran particulalry after it had announced earlier its satisfaction over the steps taken to normalize bilateral ties, stressed Al-Shaab. Some in Egypt, who want to impede any improvement in ties between Egypt and Iran, alleged that by improving its ties with Tehran, Egypt will damage its relations with the United States and hence lose American aid which is vital for the Egyptian people and the country's economy, said the paper.

Al-Shaab rejected this argument, pointing to improvement of Iran's ties with its Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf, especially with Saudi Arabia. Moreover, noted the paper, Washington was itself keen on normalizing ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Egyptian state-run paper Al-Ahram recently published several comments and analyses repeating past accusations against Iran and putting conditions to improve ties with Tehran. However, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa in an interview with the English-language Al-Ahram denied that Egyptian-Iranian ties were moving backwards.

I do not think that we are moving backward, rather I think we are moving ahead, said Moussa, commenting on Egyptian-Iranian ties. Moreover, Al-Shaab said that economic and commercial ties between Egypt and Iran were moving forward, noting that a high-ranking Egyptian trade delegation was expected to visit Tehran in February. Abdul Munim Saudi, head of Egypt's Industrial Confederation who will lead the delegation to Tehran, has called for a separation between the development of political and economic ties between Egypt and Iran. We hope that the `no lobby' will not succeed in collapsing this effort too.

There should be a separation between commercial and political ties because they are more important and more useful for both the countries and for their economies and their peoples, Munim Saudi told Al-Shaab.