Egypt's foreign ministry announced Tuesday that talks with Iran are underway to re-establish diplomatic relations that have been severed for over two decades

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement: "There has been an agreement to continue dialogue between both sides in particular over bilateral relations on the level of senior officials and then foreign ministers."

This is quite an unexpected turn of events. President Hosni Mubarak in 2006 enraged Shiite populations in Arab world when he remarked that Iran and Shiite Muslims, when he said their allegiance is to Iran and not to their countries. During the Israeli war on Lebanon last year, Mubarak blamed the SHiite militant group Hezbollah for the attacks. The remarks widely shocked Egyptians, and others in the Arab world. So the attitude towards Iran was rather an interest to curb its influence, not to maintain good diplomatic relations with it.

Egypt was infuriated by Iran when it named a street after Khaled Islamboully, the mastermind of former President Sadat's assassination in 1981. Iran condemned Sadat striking a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and for hosting the ousted Shah Reza Pahlavi in the wake of the Islamic revolution in in the same year.

written by Miret el Naggar.