TEHRAN, Iran

At a news conference Tuesday in Tehran, Iranian government spokesperson Ali Bahadori Jahromi said President Ebrahim Raisi has tasked the Foreign Ministry to initiate the formal process for the full restoration of ties with Egypt.

The announcement came one day after the Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq Al Said met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a high-stakes two-day official visit to Iran.

Jahromi said the Islamic Republic is ready to resume full diplomatic ties with the Arab country, signaling Iran's desire to boost ties with regional countries amid a normalization wave.

During his meeting with the sultan, who was in Tehran at the invitation of Raisi, the ayatollah endorsed the process of reconciliation with Egypt, which was the main takeaway from the readout of the meeting, also attended by Raisi and other top officials.

He welcomed Oman's mediation efforts aimed at potential rapprochement between Tehran and Cairo, asserting that Iran has "no problem in this regard."

The Iranian leader's comments, according to his website, came in response to Haitham "conveying Egypt's willingness for the resumption of ties with Iran."

Khamenei also had a word of praise for the Raisi administration's neighborhood-centric foreign policy, which has paved the way for normalization between Iran and its Persian Gulf neighbors.

"Sultan Haitham's meeting with Iran's leader formalized the informal fence-mending talks between Tehran and Cairo, mediated by Oman," strategic affairs analyst Abuzar Ibrahimi told Anadolu. "Ayatollah Khamenei's endorsement means decks have been cleared for Iran-Egypt détente."

Egypt-Iran reconciliation

The formalization of reconciliation between Iran and Egypt follows years of hushed diplomatic engagement between the two sides mediated by Oman and Iraq, who also facilitated talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia that culminated in an agreement in March.

The friction in Iran-Egypt ties can be traced to 1979, immediately after the Iranian Revolution, when Egypt became the first Arab state to recognize Israel and signed the Camp David Accords.

The Egyptian government's decision to grant refuge to deposed Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Iranian government's move to name a street after former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's assassin further deteriorated relations.

After Abdel Fattah el-Sisi rose to power in 2014, the two countries warmed again and diplomatic talks were reactivated but the underlying tensions remained, according to Mehdi Mohammadi, a political historian and analyst.

"Both countries extended their support to Bashar al-Assad in Syria when other regional countries were fiercely opposed to him, but the breakdown in Iran-Saudi ties in 2016 put fresh hurdles in the full restoration of Tehran-Cairo ties," he told Anadolu.

The revival of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia following two years of marathon negotiations facilitated by Iraq and Oman presented a new opportunity for Tehran and Cairo.

Haitham’s visit to Iran came one week after he held talks with el-Sisi in Cairo with Iran-Egypt normalization on the agenda.

Ibrahimi said the visiting official was carrying a message from the Egyptian government for Iran in line with Muscat's traditional role as a mediator in disputes between regional countries.

"Omani Sultan's visit to Egypt came immediately after the Arab League summit in Jeddah, which saw the participation of top Arab leaders, implying that the rapprochement between Tehran and Cairo has the stamp of approval from Egypt's Arab allies," he said.

Now speculation is rife that Iran and Egypt could exchange ambassadors in the near future, possibly before the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Other issues on agenda

While the Iran-Egypt detente figured high on the sultan's agenda during the two-day visit, other critical issues also came up for discussion, according to sources and media reports.

Oman has earned the reputation of being an effective mediator in regional disputes and conflicts, which was evident in Iran-Saudi tension-easing talks as well as Syria's return to the Arab League and ongoing talks between Riyadh and the Houthi group in Yemen.

The Ayatollah, in his meeting with the sultan, appreciated Muscat's role in facilitating Iran and Saudi Arabia talks that resulted in the resumption of diplomacy after seven years of friction.

Haitham also likely carried messages from the US to Iran on salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal through dialogue that remains stalled since last August, as previously reported by Anadolu.

A report Wednesday in Axios said White House Middle East adviser Brett McGurk traveled to Oman last month for discussions with officials on a possible diplomatic outreach to Iran. The visit was not reported in the US media.

Interestingly, one day after the sultan's visit, Iran announced the UN nuclear watchdog had closed the case related to one of the so-called "undeclared nuclear facilities," Marivan, which had become one of the sticking points in the nuclear deal talks.

"It's too early to say whether the closure of this case is related to the Sultan of Oman's Iran visit but it's definitely a step forward in overcoming issues that are preventing the revival of the nuclear deal," said Mohammadi.

Importantly, Oman played the role of a key diplomatic bridge between Iran and the US in the run-up to the 2015 nuclear deal that put limits on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of some sanctions.

Last month, during his visit to Oman, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Tehran and Muscat held consultations on “reviving the nuclear deal and lifting the sanctions” and lauded Muscat's "constructive" role in the talks.

Oman has also been mediating the prisoner swap deal between Iran and the US as well as the release of frozen Iranian assets in South Korea -- both issues came up for discussion during Haitham's visit, according to reports.

Two days before the sultan's visit, Iran and Belgium reached a deal in which an Iranian diplomat serving a 20-year jail term in Brussels was exchanged for a Belgian aid worker sentenced to 40 years in Iran. Oman brokered the deal.

A South Korean newspaper reported Tuesday that Seoul and Washington are discussing ways to unfreeze $7 billion in Iranian assets held in South Korea.

“If all goes to plan, we expect our strained relationship with Iran to improve significantly,” a Seoul government official was quoted.