Egypt is against Iran's proposal for Islamic nations to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, a Tehran newspaper said on Saturday.
The conservative Tehran Times said the Egyptian representative to a meeting of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) nations at the United Nations in New York had dismissed the plan.
"If Muslim countries set the proposal, other religious sects will also justify their call for the same seat," the paper quoted the unnamed official as saying.
Mohammed Rifah, head of Egypt's interests section in Tehran, told AFP that Cairo was not opposed to the plan as such, but said any expansion of the Council should be done "on the grounds of geography, not religion.
"If such a request is put forward by the OIC, there must be a consensus," he said.
Iran and Egypt maintain interests sections in each other's capitals but do not have full diplomatic relations.
Iran was angered by Cairo's decision to give refuge to the deposed shah after the 1979 Islamic revolution, while Egypt remains unhappy with a Tehran street named for the man who assassinated former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel.
Britain told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that the number of permanent seats on the Security Council should be doubled to include Germany, Japan and three developing countries – TEHRAN (AFP)
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