Iran Negotiating With Cairo On Oil Sales To Egypt

Tehran, Sept 11, IRNA – Officials in Tehran and Cairo are engaged in negotiations aimed at selling Iranian oil to Egypt after years of two major Islamic world countries’ severed diplomatic and economic relations, officials in two capitals informed Monday. Also according to US daily Wall Street Journal, Tehran has proposed selling two million barrels of oil to Cairo worth over 200 million US dollars. An informed official at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) confirming the news told IRNA that the two sides have negotiated over the deal, adding, “Egypt might buy a quantity of oil from Iran, but the related negotiations are still in initial phase.” The Egyptian Oil Minister Osama Kamal, too, has told the Egyptian state daily Al-Ahram, “There is no obstacle in the way of importing Iranian oil and refining it here.” The Egyptian minister’s comment was made after President Muhammad al-Morsi’s brief visit of Tehran to participate at the XVI Tehran NAM Summit Meeting during which he officially delivered the NAM presidency to the Islamic Republic of Iran for the next three years. According to the Wall Street Journal, if the deal would be finalized it would seriously enrage Washington and it might lead to further cooling of the Cairo-Washington troubled relations./end