Egypt yesterday summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in Cairo to protest over recent Iranian statements on Egypt, the foreign ministry said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said last Saturday that her country was worried by the recent escalation in violence between Egypt’s army and protesters supporting former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

At least 17 people were killed on Friday in clashes between the police and supporters of Morsi, who was ousted by the army in July. “The Iranian comments were an unacceptable interference in Egypt’s internal affairs,” said Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty. Egypt’s relationship with Iran improved markedly during Morsi’s one-year rule, after decades of broken diplomatic and political ties between the two majority Muslim states.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt for an Islamic summit last year, marking the first visit by an Iranian leader in more than three decades. He called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and offered Cairo a loan to ease a deepening econ-omic crisis.

Iran had welcomed the 2011 uprising that led to the downfall of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, and considered it an “Islamic awakening” given that it was followed by Islamist rule.