The Western and Israeli reports of Obama's recent visit to Egypt indicated that Mubarak and Obama agreed on a need to "confront Tehran" but Egytian media have a different take on the matter:
Iran is a key state in the region, and if currently there is disagreement with its regional policy, this disagreement does not justify estrangement with Iran.
More importantly at this point in time, however, is the need for Egypt to make a distinction between its policy towards Iran and its policy towards Israel. Israeli media claim from time to time that there is accord between Cairo and Tel Aviv on the crisis of the Iranian nuclear programme. But such accord is impossible because Egypt rejects the possession of a military nuclear capability not only by Iran, but also Israel.
Egypt also rejects the use of armed force against Iran and considers such action as a new threat to the region that may be more serious than the US invasion of Iraq.
In addition, Egypt does not accept the idea of establishing a US defence umbrella including many Arab states on the pretext of providing regional security against Iran's nuclear programme. This umbrella is only a form of foreign alliances that Egypt has rejected since the 50s of the past century. Egypt has maintained its stand on such alliances to date.
(SOURCE Al-Wafd, Cairo, in Arabic 15 Aug 09/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC)
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