چکیده:
Nearly four decades after Iranian-Egyptian diplomatic relations were severed, the two countries are yet to restore them. This is a result of the predominance of certain negative emotional attachments embedded in Iranian and Egyptian identities, which have clouded their respective attitudes toward one another. Mired in resentment against Arabism, the national component of the Iranian state identity catalyzes a disinclination to resolve problems with Egypt; in addition, Iran’s religious component carries resentment against Egypt as a state against Shia identification. The anti-western dimension of the Iranian state identity strengthens Iran’s negative emotional attachment to Egypt as a country allied with the United States and recently reconciling with Israel. On the Egyptian side, the Arab nationalism as the defining feature of the Egyptian state identity dictates estrangement from Iran and reluctance to engage with that. These negative emotional predispositions shape Iran and Egypt’s understanding of one another and, in the absence of pressing material interests, explain the continuous failure of the two countries to rebuild their relations.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The anti-western dimension of the Iranian state identity strengthens Iran’s negative emotional attachment to Egypt as a country allied with the United States and recently reconciling with Israel.
In the case of Iran and Egypt, along with the absence of political relations, which are generators of interests-these interests, in turn, justify the continuation of relations- what keeps the two countries in adversarial positions is the existence of the Iranian-Egyptian conflicting identities.
To advance this argument, in this study we examine the relations between Iran and Egypt as well as the way in which these two countries’ identities are formed historically in response to emotions that direct their mutual understanding and confine their perception of one another in a circle of mistrust.
In this paper, our main aim is to illustrate the way in which the historical construction of religious nationalism in Iran has been tied to various emotions concerning Egypt (Arab nationalist and allied with the West), and has formed a political other for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The hypothesis is that the historical experience of Iran’s relations with the Arab world on the one hand, and with the western countries on the other hand have given rise to the nurturing of certain emotions between Iran and Egypt.
Here, the independence-seeking and anti-western identity of Iran, which is closely tied to the emotions of resentment against the West, Israel and their Arab allies in the region, has always kept a tarnished picture of Egypt in Iranian ruling elite’s minds as a state dependent on the West and cooperative with Israel.