Mursi’s foreign visits signal Egypt’s desire to play leadership role

EGPYTIAN President Muhammad Mursi’s first trip outside the Arab world turned out to be significant on two counts at least. He did not head to Washington DC, the typical destination for Egyptian leaders for more than four decades ever since former President Anwar Sadat moved his country to the camp of US regional allies. Rather, Mursi opted to visit Beijing, the rising superpower.
Interestingly, he will be visiting Iran, the first by an Egyptian president since 1979, when a popular revolution toppled the Shah. Egypt’s new officials were at pains trying to explain that the visit had nothing to do with bilateral issues, but simply to attend the Non-Aligned summit hosted by Tehran and that the visit will last only for a few hours.
A closer look at the relations between the two countries show that three issues continued to impact their ties: Egypt’s hosting of the Shah after he was ousted; Tehran’s reaction by naming one of its streets after Khaled Islamboly, who assassinated Sadat and finally Egypt’s military help to Iraq during its 8-year-old war with Iran.
The issue of playing host to Shah is part of history now. Iraq is more allied to Iran today than to Egypt and Islamboly is politically very closer to the Muslim Brotherhood, the main political force in Egypt now. Hence, it should not be a barrier in improving relations between Tehran and the new leadership in Cairo.
But more important in Mursi’s short trip to Tehran is to see how his proposal to set up a regional contact group on Syria will be received. Initially floated during the Islamic Solidarity in Summit in Makkah during Ramadan, Mursi’s proposal starts from the point that both the Arab League and the United Nations have failed in handling the Syrian crisis and there is a need to explore new avenues. Moreover, he added that it is a regional problem that requires a regional solution and that solution should be inclusive and reach out to Syria’s main supporters, namely Iran with the hope of making it part of the solution, instead of being part of the problem.
The contact group includes the main players: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Egypt.
Tehran, that welcomed the Egyptian proposal during the Makkah summit, is expected to reiterate its approval this week, or even to push for its adoption as part of its drive to make the NAM gathering a success. After all there is a growing feeling among Syria’s supporters in Iran and Russia in particular and to some extent China that Bashar Assad’s regime has reached a dead end and its collapse is a matter of time.
That in itself could be a good starting point for the Egyptian initiative to make some headway, but to make a real breakthrough on the ground, there is a need for more than that; namely how the four countries proposed for the contact group agree on a road map and a final solution. The growing humanitarian crisis and the flow of refugees to Jordan and Turkey is yet another factor that warrants an early solution. After all it is the region that is bearing the brunt.
This could be a test and an opportunity for the new leadership in Egypt, which is trying to show an independent course of action as far as its foreign policy is concerned at least and restore the country’s regional role and leadership. Given Egypt’s sheer size and central position in the region, it is definitely qualified to play that role.
However, leadership and foreign policy require more than good initiatives, which takes the discussion back to the domestic scene. After all foreign policy is an extension of its domestic one.
In Egypt’s post popular revolution era the two issues of a strong domestic front based on national reconciliation and a solid economic base are the prerequisites for having a credible foreign policy.
Egypt’s regime is still enjoying the honeymoon of being a new one that came to power through a ballot box and still enjoys a recognized legitimacy. What it needs to do is to make sure not to squander this opportunity.

— This article is exclusive to Arab News