Mohammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate who was declared the winner of Egypt’s presidential election on Sunday, on Monday told the FARS news agency that he wants to “expand ties with Iran” in order to create a “strategic balance” in the region. The Islamist president-elect had made his first public speech shortly after the election commission confirmed his victory. He vowed to “preserve international accords and obligations,” a direct reference to the historic 1978 treaty between Egypt and Israel. Calls for drastically re-drawing or even scrapping the pact have been widely heard – particularly among the Islamist population that Morsi represents — since the unrest that led to Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow began, causing great concern in Jerusalem and Washington. Morsi’s rival was former Mubarak prime minister and confidant Ahmed Shafiq who also declared victory when the polls closed last week, but offered his congratulations to Morsi on Sunday. In his speech, Morsi reached out to “all Egyptians,” and promised the revolution would continue until all demands are met, but notably absent from Morsi’s victory speech were any references to the controversy surrounding the military council – SCAF – that has run the country since Mubarak’s demise. It invalidated the parliamentary election and has taken control of the process to draft a new constitution. Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak protests, is now the scene of anti-SCAF demonstrations. In Gaza City on Sunday, a 25-year old man was accidentally shot to death and two young girls seriously wounded by celebratory gunfire gone amiss.