Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Thursday all Iraqi political blocs were seeking strategic ties with Egypt. "Egypt is a big, effective country, with whom all Iraqis hope to build a strategic partnership," Talabani told reporters Thursday after talks with Egyptian Ambassador in Baghdad Sherif Shahin. The Iraqi leader added that Egypt always supported Iraq and had "mademany favours to the Iraqis across their history and we need to boost our ties as a matter of reciprocation". Egypt's envoy reiterated that Egypt's policy was aimed at supporting Iraq's stability, pointing out that his country would deal with any Iraqi government. "We side with Iraq and the Iraqis not with this bloc or that party," Shahin said after the talks. The Egyptian diplomat stressed that neither he nor the Egyptian mission in Baghdad would leave the country after an attack, which targeted its building earlier this month. Egyptian Foreign Ministry official Mohamed Kassem told the Shura Council (Egypt's Upper House) this week that the leader of the Sadrists, anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ��" whose negotiators have already been to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran ��" would visit Cairo soon. But al-Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Obeidi said, however, that the Egypt trip was just a rumor and that al-Sadr had no plans to visit Cairo. Representatives of various Iraq parties have been visiting Iraq's neighbours since the election to rally support. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi himself had paid a visit to Egypt in February. In last month's parliamentary election, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition came in second, two seats behind the alliance headed by his archrival Allawi, leading to a heated race to form a coalition government.
