(AP-Washington Post) During Iranian President Ahmadinejad's visit to Cairo on Tuesday, there was unscripted discord from Sunni protesters angry over Iran's support for the Assad regime in Syria, as well as decades of sectarian animosity between Shiite-led Iran and the region's Sunni majority. At one point, Ahmadinejad was forced to flee an ancient mosque in downtown Cairo after a Syrian protester took off his shoes and threw them at him. Later, anti-Iranian protesters blocked the main gates to Al-Azhar University, where Egypt's most prominent cleric chided Ahmadinejad for interfering in the affairs of Sunni nations. The protests illustrate the limits to how far and how quickly Egypt's Islamist President Morsi can go in reaching out to Iran: His Sunni allies at home view Shiite Iran as a bitter rival.
2013-02-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive