TEHRAN – Officials from Iran and Egypt has recently held a new round of talks to restore ties, according to a Qatari-owned newspaper.

Citing an Egyptian diplomatic source, Al Araby Al Jadeed said, “The Egyptian-Iranian talks, held during the past few days, resulted in the agreement to go to a series of exploratory meetings regarding the issues that concern the decision makers in the two countries, similar to the exploratory meetings held between the officials in Egypt and Turkey.”

The source added, “There is a joint committee of the two sides at the moment, in charge of arranging and coordinating the steps related to the restoration of relations between the two countries, identifying the files and issues that need to be resolved, in light of the desire of both sides to develop those relations, as part of the recent changes in the region.”

According to the source, Egypt is still cautiously dealing with the issue of relations with Iran due to a number of reasons and it seeks clear agreements with Iran on the future of relations between Tehran and Cairo.

Another Egyptian diplomat said that what makes the movement slow on the Egyptian side so far regarding the path of restoring relations between the two countries, is the divergence of visions within the security circles in Egypt. “On the diplomatic level, the Foreign Ministry has informed the country's leadership of its readiness to start official talks as soon as possible,” the second source said.

The same diplomat pointed out that the Egyptian and Iranian sides “definitely made, during various talks that took place with Iraqi and Omani mediation, great strides regarding bringing the views on some regional files closer together.”

He pointed out that “the most prominent files that witnessed rapprochement between the two sides during the last period are the file of the situation in the Gaza Strip, the relationship between Tehran and the Palestinian resistance factions, as well as the file of the determinants of Egyptian national security.”

He said, “There is a clear principled agreement between the two sides not to interfere in each other's internal affairs.”

He also pointed out that there are new talks between security officials in the two countries, which took place after the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia' al-Sudani to Cairo in mid-June, without clarifying the nature of those talks, and whether they came through meetings between the two sides or just contacts.

Al Araby Al Jadeed also cited an Iranian diplomatic source as saying that Egypt is not enthusiastic about restoring relations with Iran. The Iranian source added, “There is no clear explanation for the reason for the Egyptian lack of enthusiasm, especially after the occurrence of normalization between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The matter may be related to Egypt's relationship with Israel, and the reason may be that Egypt fears the normalization of relations with Iran will affect its relationship with Israel, but in any case, there is no positive interaction from the Egyptian side and there are slow steps.”

Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, recently said that the normalization of relations between Iran and Egypt is important to both countries and the Islamic world.

He added that “the resumption of relations with Egypt will likely lead to a new regional balance, with the participation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Iran and Egypt have been involved in talks in recent months to patch up their relations. Oman and Iraq have played a mediatory role in this regard, something that Iran has welcomed.