Morsi in Tehran

There's been a lot of buzz in the American press regarding President Morsi's comments in Tehran about Syria. I don't wish to write too much about this except that the main issue here is about balance -- not being one-sided. 

For Iran, a balanced "Morsi Egypt" > one sided "Mubarak Egypt". 

This means the Islamic Republic of Iran gains. 

All that Iran wants is for neighboring countries to act independently and to take into consideration regional problems responsibly -- not to rely on America to cover for disastrous foreign policy measures such as backing war, invasions, and insurgencies.

The fact that Morsi could be so open during the NAM summit about his position is not a bad thing! In fact, Morsi's statements are essentially outlining Iran's position on Syria.

It’s no longer acceptable at all to respect the foundations of democracy on the level of the state and to ignore them on the international level, between states. And it’s also no longer acceptable to observe the principles of pluralism and put them aside in the field of international relations. And from here, and with these meanings, and with this will, and with this conscious look to the future, Egypt believes that one of the core pillars of this new ... international system that we want mainly lies in enhancing the contribution of developing countries in managing and reforming the institutions of global governance to guarantee the fairness of participation in decision making and framing the directions on the international arenas politically, economically and socially.

That could have easily come out of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mouth. In fact, it essentially did at the very same session of NAM.

Even as this extremely misleading article states (in spite of the title, Morsi did not back the armed rebel insurgency -- in fact rebuking it outright):

Morsi has proposed that Iran take part in a four-nation contact group that would include Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to mediate an end to the Syrian crisis. Ban also said Iran has a key role to play in finding a solution to end Syria's civil war, which activists say has claimed at least 20,000 lives.

This is what I previously meant by "responsible regional rivalries" -- it's only by fairly including all the players involved that a just resolution can come about.

To end with some of the reasons behind Morsi's statement regarding Syria and why he stayed silent on Bahrain:

"His visit signifies that Iran is an important regional power that cannot be ignored," said Mohamed Abbas Nagi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Cairo's Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "However, Morsi's rise came out of Egypt's own revolution, so how can Egypt pursue better ties with Iran now when that country is suppressing a revolution in Syria?" added Nagi, noting that Egypt's immediate priority appears to be restoring relations with Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states that were close to Mubarak.