Ahmadinejad in Egypt: I hope they let me visit Gaza

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad landed in Cairo on Tuesday and was greeted by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to kick off an historic visit to Egypt. Just before embarking on Monday, Ahmadinejad said he would like to continue making history with another unprecedented trip: to the Gaza Strip.

„If they allow me, I’ll go ahead and visit Gaza,” Ahmadinejad said in an interview with the Lebanese news channel Al Mayadeen.

„The land of Gaza is sacred because it is on the road to Al-Quds [Jerusalem]. I hope the day of Al-Quds’ liberation comes soon, and I can go to the holy city and pray at Al-Aqsa,” he said.

Ahmadinejad is attending a summit in Cairo along with a delegation of senior Iranian officials in the first visit by an Iranian head of state to Egypt since relations broke down following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

„Coordinating relations between Tehran and Cairo is entirely possible,” Ahmadinejad said. „The Egyptian leadership, however, must accept our position regarding the liberation of all of Palestine.”

Ahmadinejad also referred briefly to last week’s supposed Israeli air strike of a target on Syrian soil, saying, „The Zionists attacked Syria out of weakness.”

The Iranian president also touched on the Iranian announcement earlier this week that it had launched a live monkey into space. Based on the apparent success of the simian mission, which the U.S. feared was meant to boost the kind of missile systems that could be used to deliver a nuclear warhead, Iran said that it would like to send a human astronaut into space within the next five to six years.

„I am ready to be the first human to be sent to space by Iranian scientists,” Ahmadinejad declared. „Sending living things into space is the result of Iranian efforts and the dedication of thousands of Iranian scientists.”

In the meantime, officials in Iran have begun to weigh U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s offer on Saturday to begin direct negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s thorny nuclear program, an issue that has sunk the Iranian economy and isolated Tehran through international sanctions.

„There is still time, there is still space, for diplomacy backed by pressure to succeed. The ball is in the government of Iran’s court,” Biden said at the Munich Security Conference.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Biden’s offer showed „a change in the U.S.’s approach to Tehran.”

Still, Salehi said it would be difficult to rebuild trust after 30 years of cool to nonexistent relations.

„Iran is ready to address the other side’s concerns,” he said in Berlin, after attending the Munich conference.

On Sunday, Salehi announced that Iran would enter into nuclear talks on Feb. 25 in Kazakhstan with the P5+1 world powers, which have volunteered to work with Iran over its nuclear program.