James Taranto disagrees with my take on Egypt’s statements about the Camp David agreement being “a thing of the past.” He sees the tentative rapprochement between Iran and Egypt as more a part of a general trend toward gestures of peace in the Middle East, brought on by the Iraq War.

While I do agree with James’ major point—that there’s a real shakeup in Middle East politics, most of it beneficial to the US—what worries me about an Iran-Egypt alliance is that it looks less like a desire for peace, and more like a desire to unite against common enemies. For example, note that the initial move was taken by Iran, who renamed a street in Tehran from Khaled Islambouli Street—Islambouli was one of the assassins of Anwar Sadat—to Intifadah Street.

The Tehran City Council renamed Khaled Islambouli Street at a meeting Tuesday. Islambouli was the Egyptian army lieutenant who shot Sadat at a military parade in 1981. The street’s new name is Intifadah - after the violent Palestinian uprising against Israel, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

“The new name was approved by a majority of votes,” IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying. Asefi attended the council’s meeting.

“This is a step in the direction of detente and building confidence in international relations especially among Muslim countries on the basis of dignity, wisdom and national interests,” Asefi said.