The hardliner Iranian university students announced that Egypt either has to stand with Gaza or leave Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.
The students "sent an open letter to the director of the interests section (of Egypt in Tehran) on Tuesday and set a 48-hour deadline for the Egyptian government to condemn the Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip," warning that "if it (Egyptian government) fails to do so, its interests section personnel should leave Tehran by 12 noon on Thursday," Fars reported.
According to the report, the letter was from those students who stormed a British embassy compound earlier on Tuesday evening.
The students urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to end the country's support for the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.
The Iranian government has made no statement on the students' demands, according to Fars.
In his message, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, denouncing Israeli assault on Gaza, said on Sunday that "Instead of standing up to Israeli war crimes and defending innocent Gazans, some Muslim leaders (referring implicitly to Egypt among them) have paved the way for Tel Aviv to commit these crimes against humanity."
The relations between Egypt and Iran collapsed with the sudden eruption of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1978-79. Iran and Egypt currently only have interests sections in each other.
The Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was under intensive Israeli air strikes for the fifth successive day on Wednesday.
Since last Saturday, massive air raids on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has killed 380 Palestinians and injured 1,600 others.
Israel said the offensive was aimed at halting nearly daily cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
Hamas is strongly backed by Iran which does not recognize Israel as a state of the international community.
Source:Xinhua
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