Publish Date: 18 December 2024 - 16:05

TEHRAN, Dec. 18 (MNA) – President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran left Tehran for Egypt to attend the upcoming meeting of the developing-8 (D8) on Thursday.

The plane carrying the Iranian President took off from Tehran's Mehrabad Airport for Egypt to attend the D-8 summit.

It was reported earlier this week thhat on the sidelines of the summit, President Pezeshkian will hold bilateral meetings with other officials participating at the summit.

Earlier, the media reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Egypt on this Thursday

Given the recent developments in Syria, it is expected that the presidents of Iran and Turkey will meet on the sidelines of the summit and discuss developments in Syria.

D-8 is a global arrangement for cooperation amongst the developing countries of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. The meeting will be held on Thursday, December 19. 

According to Press TV, the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, is an organization for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Egypt will host the 11th D-8 Summit on December 19, 2024.

Pezeshkian's visit to Egypt will be the first by an Iranian president since 2013 when former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Cairo and met with then-Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980, as shifts widened between the two following the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Egypt’s recognition of Israel. The move came after Egypt welcomed the deposed US-backed Pahlavi ruler.

However, since Egypt’s longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising in 2011, there has been a warming of relations between Iran and Egypt.

In recent years, particularly amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, diplomatic contacts between the two countries have intensified as Egypt has tried to play a mediating role.

MNA