TEHRAN: Iran says it has invited Egypt’s new Islamist president to Tehran for a summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in August.  

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he talked to Egypt’s president, Mohammed Morsi, and offered the invitation, according to Ahmadinejad’s website.

Morsi is the first Islamist president of Egypt and the first to be democratically elected.

Egyptian officials were not available for comment Thursday.

Egypt is the current chair of the Non-Aligned Movement and is due to turn over the position to Iran at the summit.

Iran downgraded its relations with Egypt in 1979, the same year as Iran’s Islamic revolution and Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt has expressed signs of rapprochement with Iran, a stand that worries Israel and the US.