A senior Egyptian official says Cairo and Tehran are expected to fully restore diplomatic ties and exchange respective ambassadors in the near future after more than four decades of estrangement.

President Raeisi congratulates his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on election victory.

The meeting was the most high-profile encounter between Iranian and Saudi Arabian officials.

Egypt’s foreign minister is in Damascus in the first such high-level visit since the start of the foreign-backed militancy in Syria in 2011.

At least 41 killed have been killed and 45 others injured after a fire broke out in a Coptic Christian church in the Egyptian city of Giza, near the capital Cairo.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman dismisses recent remarks by Bahraini and Egyptian officials against Tehran as biased and unconstructive.

The amendments give the Egyptian president the authority to take “measures necessary to preserve security and public order,” including imposing lock-downs, among other sweeping powers.