Iran has exploited the current crisis in the Gaza Strip for rapprochement with Egypt.
Iran, which has had few active ties with Egypt since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in recent days has communicated with Cairo about the breach of Gaza’s southern border by Palestinians defying an Israeli-led blockade.
The Foreign Ministry in Tehran said this week it had asked Egypt to keep the border open so that Iranian-supplied goods can freely flow in. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also has spoken to his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, about the situation.
Egypt has downplayed the rapprochement, which raised eyebrows in Jerusalem given Iran’s diehard hostility to the Jewish state and efforts to bolster Palestinian terrorist groups by training their leaders and arming their cadres.
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