CAIRO: Iran has canceled its visa fees for nationals of seven countries including Egypt, in an attempt to revive its tourism sector, Iranian PressTV reported Monday.
The seven countries are; Turkey, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bolivia, Egypt and Syria.
“The new visa regulations state that the citizens of these countries can freely stay in Iran without visa from 15 to 90 days,” said PressTV.
According to the news website, this is considered a step in an under-study Iranian governmental program that will allow the citizens of other 60 countries to have a visa-free travel to Iran.
“Tahran first issued a visa-free travel decision for Egypt in February 2013, during the visit of the previous Iranian President Ahmadi Najad to Cairo,” Youm7 said Wednesday.
According to the Iranian Hamshahri online newspaper, the decision is mono-lateral from Tahran’s side; Egyptians can spend around 20 days in Tahran without a need of visa, Youm7 added.
In October 2013, Egypt stopped receiving Iranian tourists citing security concerns after the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013.
Relations between Sunni Egypt and Shiite Iran became strained after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. However, Morsi visited Tehran in August 2012 to attend a Non-Aligned Movement summit and restore ties between the two countries.
In June 2014, Iran was invited to attend the inauguration ceremony of newly elected President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, after which Iran has announced it is ready to cooperate with Egypt.
The announcement came in statements made by Chairman of the Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran Alaaeddin Boroujerdi to Iranian channel Al-Alam, Youm7 reported in June 2014.
Boroujerdi expected that there would be a breakthrough in Egyptian-Iranian relations during Sisi’s rule, but said it would take time and will not be a “sudden breakthrough.”