Iran slams Egypt's raid on Iranian TV channel

Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini has termed as "unacceptable" a raid by Egyptian security forces at the office of Iranian satellite TV channel Al Alam in Cairo, a media report said.

Egyptian security forces Saturday raided the office of the Arabic language TV channel, detained its director and confiscated the equipment in the office, Xinhua reported citing Press TV.

The Egyptians said the Iranian TV channel did not have permission for activity.

"We expect to see an end to such behaviour as quickly as possible. Egypt is a Muslim state and we are ready to broaden cooperation with this country in all sectors," Hosseini was quoted as saying.

The ban on Iran's Al Alam news channel harms Tehran-Cairo ties, he added.

Ties between Egypt and Iran were cut off after Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. But after Egyptians ousted Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, a breakthrough was made in easing the tense ties.

The icy bilateral relations started to thaw after then president Mohamed Morsi paid a visit to Tehran in August 2012 to attend the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) summit, which was followed by then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Cairo in February to attend an Islamic conference.

Iran has criticised recent military intervention which led to Morsi's ouster.