Direct Cairo-Tehran flights to resume soon: Egyptian security source

Direct flights from the Iranian capital Tehran to Egypt’s Cairo and vice versa are expected to resume soon, an Egyptian high-level security source said, confirming news recently reported by the Iranian semi-official news agency Tasnim.

"An official delegation from Iran was on a visit to Cairo a few days ago that met senior representatives from the ministries of tourism, civil aviation and foreign ministry, in the presence of others from sovereign security bodies to coordinate the necessary procedures," the source, exclusively, told The New Arab on condition of anonymity.  

"An Egyptian delegation involving senior security officials is also set to visit Tehran later next week to handle the Tehran to Cairo flights," the source added.

In recent months, ongoing Iraqi and Omani mediations have been underway between Egypt and Iran to reestablish relations that had been strained for decades.

Tehran's relations with Cairo have been fraught since the ousting of Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1979 Islamic revolution and Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel the same year, making it the only Arab country that has not had an embassy in Tehran since that period.

The Shah's subsequent refuge in Egypt, then under the rule of President Anwar Sadat, worsened relations. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi died in 1980 in Egypt, where he is buried.

Shortly after Saudi Arabia and Iran restored ties in March this year, the Egyptian government announced measures to facilitate tourism for Iranians, allowing them to acquire a visa-on-arrival for visiting south Sinai through an accredited certified tour company.

Currently, only a Chargé d'Affaires represents the diplomatic missions in both countries. 

In August 2012, Egypt-Iran ties were briefly restored following the election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi as Egypt’s first-ever democratically elected president.

Morsi and the then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even agreed to reopen embassies in each other's capitals.

Ahmadinejad reciprocated by visiting Cairo in February 2013. The next month, direct flights were established between Tehran and Cairo, another first since the Iranian Revolution.