Iran's president to make rare visit to Egypt for D-8 summit

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will take part in a summit of big Muslim countries in Egypt on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, the first visit by an Iranian president to Egypt in more than a decade.

Egypt is hosting the summit of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, which also includes Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades but the two countries have stepped up high-level diplomatic contacts since the eruption of the Gaza crisis last year as Egypt tried to play a mediating role.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi travelled to Egypt in October to discuss regional issues with Egyptian officials, while his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty travelled to Tehran earlier in July to attend Pezeshkian's inauguration.

"We have the important summit... known as D-8 in Egypt, the foreign minister will take part in the ministerial conference and then the summit will be held with the participation of the president," Baghaei said in a weekly televised news conference.

Iran will discuss regional and bilateral affairs with the participating countries on the sidelines of the summit, Baghaei added.

The D-8 was established in 1997 to improve cooperation between countries stretching from Southeast Asia to Africa.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Peter Graff)

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