A Hamas delegation visited Cairo on March 28 with a message indicating that the relationship between the Islamist movement and Egypt is warming in the post-Mubarak era. The following day, Egypt’s new foreign minister held his first press conference and announced that Egypt is ready to also turn over a new leaf in its relationship with Iran and Hezbollah.

Reconciliation With Hamas

During their three days in Cairo, the delegation of Hamas officials met with Egyptian intelligence personnel, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Al-Arabi, and an unnamed official from the Supreme Military Council, the organization currently running Egypt. At the meetings, the Hamas delegation provided security assurances to Egypt and expressed solidarity with the Egyptian revolution. Mahmoud al-Zahar, the unofficial foreign minister of Hamas, said that Cairo had promised to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Resheq said his party’s relationship with Egypt “is good and is developing continuously.”

“[T]oday Egypt has come closer to the beat of the Arab street in general and the Palestinian street in particular,” Resheq said. “Egypt today is regaining its leadership position in the Arab world.”

“It’s clear that the new Egyptian government will have a new policy towards Hamas,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Qatar-based think tank Brookings Doha Canter. “Hamas is popular in Egypt and the new government will have to reflect support of the Palestinian resistance. It would have been difficult to imagine such a visit only a few months ago” (emphasis mine).

Hamas also announced plans to re-open the Egyptian Consulate in Gaza, which has been shut since 2007.

Egypt’s “New Page” With Iran

The following day, on March 29, Egypt’s foreign minister proposed opening a “new page” with Iran, a nation with which Cairo has had only limited relations since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

“The Egyptian government doesn’t consider Iran to be an enemy state,” Nabil Al-Arabi said. “We’re opening a new page with all countries, including Iran.”

In the past, Egypt has accused Iran of using proxy groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon to bolster its influence in the Middle East, and the two nations haven’t had full diplomatic ties since 1979, when then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat gave refuge to the toppled shah of Iran.

Al-Arabi explained that restoration of full diplomatic ties depends on Iran’s response to the olive branch Egypt is extending to the Islamic Republic.

On April 1, the chairman of Iran’s parliamentary Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, responded, saying that Iran’s establishment of relations with Egypt is “an important opportunity” for Tehran. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must seriously pursue the establishment of bilateral relations between Iran and Egypt,” he said.

Al-Arabi also said Egypt desires to turn over a new leaf with Hezbollah in Lebanon. “Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s composition,” Al-Arabi said, “and we see this as an internal matter. … If any party wishes to have ties with Egypt there will be nothing preventing us from talking, but we will not become involved in internal matters.”

Al-Arabi’s anti-Israel stance is well known. He has said that the Jewish nation should be tried for genocide.

Egypt’s moves toward Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah have not taken the Trumpet by surprise.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry recently wrote:

Many people in the West hope to see Egypt transform into a picture of democracy and peace. But what do the Egyptian people want? Are Western leaders willing to look at the reality?A major survey by the Pew Research Center last year showed that the people of Egypt have no interest in Western-style democracy. Theyactuallywantstrict Islamic rule. …A powerful Mubarak was able to control or contain the more extreme views of his own people. But that dam was broken when he resigned.

As far back as July 1993, Mr. Flurry predicted that a radical shift would launch Egyptian politics toward the Islamist camp. That shift is now under way. Egypt’s warming ties with Hamas and Iran show that the end result of Egypt’s Jasmine Revolution will not be the democratic Egypt that Western analysts had hoped for, but the birth of another radical Islamist nation.