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Egyptians
must ask themselves if a stagnated relationship with Iran is really in
their best interest, or whether they ought to rethink and revitalize
their cooperation with this regional power.

Why should we
care whether Iran has a nuclear program? Why should we concern ourselves
with accusations that Iran’s presidential elections were rigged, that
it is attempting to impose its agenda on Iraq, or that the United States
and Israel are planning military strikes against it? Indeed, the
Egyptian media treats events in Iran with seeming indifference,
overlooking the impacts they could potentially have on us. Instead of
taking heed of important developments, our dismissive news coverage
continues to gloat, even as a strike against Iran looms close on the
horizon. Why is that?

The common responses to these questions are
of a similar nature: Egypt and Iran do not have full diplomatic ties, a
massive geographic expanse separates us, Iran is a Shiite nation vastly
different from our own, it is competing with us for influence in the
Gulf, and so forth. Therefore, we rationalize, what goes on in Iran need
not concern us.

Reasoning of this sort is entirely in line with
Egypt’s political system, whose diplomatic relations with an influential
country like Iran are generally characterized by underestimation and
disregard. In Egypt’s official... >>>