Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi agreed here Tuesday to keep up efforts to restore full diplomatic ties cut off 25 years ago, the official news agency IRNA said.
"Kharazi and Ahmed Maher agreed on maintaining contacts and exchanging views between the two sides in view of a complete resumption of relations between Tehran and Cairo," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Iran and Egypt share common hopes and worries, and the meeting of the two countries' presidents in Geneva was a positive sign of the two sides' intention for bilateral co-operation," Maher was quoted as saying at his meeting with Kharazi, held in the run-up to a summit of the Islamic economic group of eight.
The group was set up in 1998 on Turkey's initiative. It comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Diplomatic ties between Cairo and Tehran were severed in 1979, the year that Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and gave asylum to shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi when he was deposed by the Islamic revolution in Iran.
Relations were particularly bad while Egypt supported Iraq during its 1980-1988 war with Iran.
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