Establishment of relations with Tehran and interaction with Iran are highly important (to Cairo)," Tala't Ramih told FNA, adding that the two Muslim countries should develop their economic, cultural, trade and training relations.
"I see no obstacle to the establishment of such relations between Iran and Egypt," he underlined.
The editor of the Egyptian 'Strategies' magazine also welcomed the recent developments in the two countries' relations, and said, "The things which happened between the two countries in the past were not natural and normal as Egypt confronted Tehran without paying attention to its own and Iran's interests."
After the collapse of Hosni Mubarak's regime, the Iranian and Egyptian officials voiced their interest in the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi officially invited his Egyptian counterpart Nabil al-Arabi to pay a visit to Tehran.
The invitation letter was submitted to the Egyptian foreign minister during a meeting between Director of Iran's Interest Section in Cairo Mojtaba Amani and al-Arabi.
Egyptian daily, al-Ahram quoted the spokesman of the Egyptian foreign ministry as saying that Salehi in his message had lauded the recently uttered positive remarks by al-Arabi about the promotion of bilateral ties with Iran.
Al-Arabi in his first press conference last month announced Cairo's preparedness to open "a new page with Iran.
The state security prosecution today began an inquiry into Iranian diplomat Qasim al-Hosseini, who works at the Iranian interests section in Cairo," the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
Hosseini, who was arrested a few days ago, had been accused of "spying for a foreign state (Iran) in order to harm Egypt's interests," said MENA.
An initial probe found the diplomat gathered "information about Egypt on the latest developments the country has experienced and the conditions through which it is passing, then sent them to Iran's intelligence services," it added.
The Iranian interests section in Cairo denied the report.
"He is in the embassy as I speak. It did not happen that way, he was not arrested," an official in the section told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Earlier in Tehran, the Arabic-language television channel Al-Alam quoted an informed source as saying that Hosseini "is currently in his office and working normally" in Cairo.
"We are following the case," he added without elaborating.
Iran and Egypt have no diplomatic ties and relations between the two countries were tense under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Tehran severed diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1980 in protest at Cairo's peace treaty with Israel signed a year earlier, and the two states maintain only interests sections in each other's capitals.
But the two Muslim countries have signalled they plan to mend ties in the wake of the fall of Mubarak's regime on February 11 this year.
