TEHRAN, 7 January 2004 — Iran yesterday renamed a street that had honored the assassin of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, paving the way for the Middle East’s two most populous nations to restore ties broken 25 years ago.
A senior Iranian official said the two countries had agreed to patch up a relationship severed by Tehran shortly after the 1979 revolution due to Cairo’s 1978 Camp David peace deal with Israel and decision to host Iran’s exiled shah.
But Egypt said a final decision had yet to be taken.
“The two countries have decided to restore ties...and right now they are making the preparations,” Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said.
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher insisted it was too soon to speak of a decision on normalizing ties.
“When a decision is taken, it will be announced. There is no official announcement from anywhere,” he told reporters.
