Patriots
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Egypt | Army Ousts Mursi govt, violence erupts | News & Discussions
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doublemaster
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By the way what are salafi leaders thinking now? I dont see any news from their party these days.
doublemaster
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Egypt ex-VP ElBaradei's party 'shocked' over lawsuit - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online
Constitution Party Media Secretary Khaled Dawoud expresses his "shock" at news that the party's founder and former Egyptian vice president Mohamed ElBaradei may face trial for having resigned, calling the legal petition part of a campaign against ElBaradei.
Helwan University criminal law professor Ahmed El-Ateeq filed a case against ElBaradei this week charging he "breached national trust."
"No official was ever charged in any country in the world with a crime for simply resigning from his post," Dawoud maintains.
Dawoud argues, however, that El-Ateeq used financial law in his case against ElBaradei, which he says doesn't apply, according to the Constitution Party's press release.
He adds that reviewing such a case so quickly - a Cairo court set the trial date for 19 September, which also coincides with the judges' annual holiday - is proof of a "rabid campaign aimed at tarnishing [ElBaradei's] reputation and stances." He also points out that this isn't the first time the Constitution Party has stood against a campaign against them.
ElBaradei resigned citing that he could not bear the responsibility for decisions that led to violence witnessed at the dispersal of sit-ins on 14 August that were pressing to reinstate president Mohamed Morsi. Protests against the violent dispersal erupted in the days following, with hundreds dying and thousands injured in clashes.
Before the sit-ins were evicted, ElBaradei was widely attacked in many Egyptian media outlets for allegedly standing in the way of calls to disperse the sit-in.
After he resigned attacks intensified, saying he disappointed his party and the country.
The Constitution Party concluded with a warning from Dawoud that such lawsuits would only increase internal strife in Egypt by standing against any voice that "attempts to exit the polarised atmosphere Egypt has entered."
So, Coup aligned party itself doesnt trust their court.....!!
Constitution Party Media Secretary Khaled Dawoud expresses his "shock" at news that the party's founder and former Egyptian vice president Mohamed ElBaradei may face trial for having resigned, calling the legal petition part of a campaign against ElBaradei.
Helwan University criminal law professor Ahmed El-Ateeq filed a case against ElBaradei this week charging he "breached national trust."
"No official was ever charged in any country in the world with a crime for simply resigning from his post," Dawoud maintains.
Dawoud argues, however, that El-Ateeq used financial law in his case against ElBaradei, which he says doesn't apply, according to the Constitution Party's press release.
He adds that reviewing such a case so quickly - a Cairo court set the trial date for 19 September, which also coincides with the judges' annual holiday - is proof of a "rabid campaign aimed at tarnishing [ElBaradei's] reputation and stances." He also points out that this isn't the first time the Constitution Party has stood against a campaign against them.
ElBaradei resigned citing that he could not bear the responsibility for decisions that led to violence witnessed at the dispersal of sit-ins on 14 August that were pressing to reinstate president Mohamed Morsi. Protests against the violent dispersal erupted in the days following, with hundreds dying and thousands injured in clashes.
Before the sit-ins were evicted, ElBaradei was widely attacked in many Egyptian media outlets for allegedly standing in the way of calls to disperse the sit-in.
After he resigned attacks intensified, saying he disappointed his party and the country.
The Constitution Party concluded with a warning from Dawoud that such lawsuits would only increase internal strife in Egypt by standing against any voice that "attempts to exit the polarised atmosphere Egypt has entered."
So, Coup aligned party itself doesnt trust their court.....!!
Jihad_
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Washington frets over Saudi ties
By Jim Lobe
August 23, 2013
WASHINGTON - As the administration of President Barack Obama continues wrestling with how to react to the military coup in Egypt and its bloody aftermath, officials and independent analysts are increasingly worried about the crisis's effect on US ties with Saudi Arabia.
The oil-rich kingdom's strong support for the coup is seen here as having encouraged Cairo's defense minister General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood and resist Western pressure to take a conciliatory approach that would be less likely to radicalize the Brotherhood's followers and push them into taking up arms.
Along with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia did not just pledge immediately after the July 3 coup that ousted president Mohamed Morsi to provide a combined US$12 billion in financial assistance, but it has also promised to make up for any Western aid - including the $1.5 billion with which Washington supplies Cairo annually in mostly military assistance - that may be withheld as a result of the coup and the ongoing crackdown in which about 1,000 protesters are believed to have been killed to date.
Perhaps even more worrisome to some experts in Washington has been the exceptionally tough language directed against Washington's own condemnation of the coup by top Saudi officials, including King Abdullah, who declared last week that "[t]he kingdom stands ... against all those who try to interfere with its domestic affairs" and charged that criticism of the army crackdown amounted to helping the "terrorists".
Bruce Riedel, a former top CIA Middle East analyst who has advised the Obama administration, called the comments "unprecedented" even if the king did not identify the United States by name.
Chas Freeman, a highly decorated retired foreign service officer who served as US ambassador to Riyadh during the Gulf War, agreed with that assessment.
"I cannot recall any statement as bluntly critical as that," he told IPS, adding that it marked the culmination of two decades of growing Saudi exasperation with US policy - from Washington's failure to restrain Israeli military adventures and the occupation of Palestinian territory to its empowering the Shia majority in Iraq after its 2003 invasion and its abandonment of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and its backing of democratic movements during the "Arab awakening".
"For most of the past seven decades, the Saudis have looked to Americans as their patrons to handle the strategic challenges of their region," Freeman said. "But now the al-Saud partnership with the United States has not only lost most of its charm and utility; it has from Riyadh's perspective become in almost all respects counterproductive."
The result, according to Freeman, has been a "lurch into active unilateral defense of its regional interests", a move that could portend major geo-strategic shifts in the region. "Saudi Arabia does not consider the US a reliable protector, thinks it's on its own, and is acting accordingly."
A number of analysts, including Freeman, have pointed to a July 31 meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Riyadh's national security council and intelligence service, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, as one potentially significant "straw in the wind" regarding the Saudi's changing calculations.
According to a Reuters report, Bandar, who served as Riyadh's ambassador to Washington for more than two decades, offered to buy up to $15 billion in Russian arms and to coordinate energy policy - specifically to prevent Qatar from exporting its natural gas to Europe at Moscow's expense - in exchange for Russia dropping or substantially reducing Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
While Putin, under whom Moscow's relations with Washington appear to have a hit a post-Cold War low recently, was non-committal, Bandar left Moscow encouraged by the possibilities for greater strategic co-operation, according to press reports that drew worried comments from some here.
"[T]he United States is apparently standing on the sidelines - despite being Riyadh's close diplomatic partner for decades, principally in the hitherto successful policy of blocking Russia's influence in the Middle East," wrote Simon Henderson, an analyst at the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"It would be optimistic to believe that the Moscow meeting will significantly reduce Russian support for the Assad regime," he noted. "But meanwhile Putin will have pried open a gap between Riyadh and Washington."
As suggested by Abdullah's remarks, that gap has only widened in the wake of the Egyptian military's bloody crackdown on the Brotherhood this month and steps by Washington to date, including the delay in the scheduled shipment of F-16 fighter jets and the cancellation of joint US-Egyptian military exercises next month, to show disapproval.
US officials have told reporters that Washington is also likely to suspend a shipment of Apache attack helicopters to Cairo unless the regime quickly reverses course.
Meanwhile Moscow, even as it joined the West in appealing for restraint and non-violent solutions to the Egyptian crisis, has also refrained from criticizing the military, while the chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Duma's upper house blamed the United States and the European Union for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
"It is clear that Russia and Saudi Arabia prefer stability in Egypt, and both are betting on the Egyptian military prevailing in the current standoff, and are already acting on that assumption," according to an op-ed that laid out the two countries' common interests throughout the Middle East and was published Sunday by Alarabiya.net, the news channel majority-owned by the Saudi Middle East Broadcasting Center.
Some observers argue that Russia and Saudi Arabia have a shared interest in containing Iran; reducing Turkish influence; co-operating on energy issues; and bolstering autocratic regimes, including Egypt's, at the expense of popular Islamist parties, notably the Brotherhood and its affiliates, across the region.
"There's a certain logic to all that, but it's too early to say whether such an understanding can be reached," said Freeman, who noted that Bandar "wrote the book on outreach to former ideological and geo-strategic enemies", including China, and that his visit to Moscow "looks like classic Saudi breakout diplomacy".
But reaching a deal on Syria would be particularly challenging. While Riyadh assigns higher priority to reducing Iran's regional influence than to removing Assad, some analysts believe there are ways an agreement that would retain him as president could be struck, as Moscow insists, while reducing his power over the opposition-controlled part of the country and weakening his ties to Tehran and Hezbollah.
But Mark N Katz, an expert on Russian Middle East policy at George Mason University, is skeptical about the prospects for a Russian-Saudi entente, noting that Bandar has pursued such a relationship in the past without success.
"I'm not saying it can't work, but this has been his hobby horse," he told IPS. "Whatever happens in Saudi-American relations, however, the Saudis don't trust the Russians and don't want them meddling in the region. Everything about the Russians ticks them off."
He added that Abdullah's harsh criticism was intended more as a "wake-up call" and the fact that "the Saudis are on the same side [in supporting the Egyptian military] as the Israelis has emboldened them".
Saudi Arabia support Egyptian Army while Muslim Brotherhood is backed by US, interesting game.
By Jim Lobe
August 23, 2013
WASHINGTON - As the administration of President Barack Obama continues wrestling with how to react to the military coup in Egypt and its bloody aftermath, officials and independent analysts are increasingly worried about the crisis's effect on US ties with Saudi Arabia.
The oil-rich kingdom's strong support for the coup is seen here as having encouraged Cairo's defense minister General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood and resist Western pressure to take a conciliatory approach that would be less likely to radicalize the Brotherhood's followers and push them into taking up arms.
Along with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia did not just pledge immediately after the July 3 coup that ousted president Mohamed Morsi to provide a combined US$12 billion in financial assistance, but it has also promised to make up for any Western aid - including the $1.5 billion with which Washington supplies Cairo annually in mostly military assistance - that may be withheld as a result of the coup and the ongoing crackdown in which about 1,000 protesters are believed to have been killed to date.
Perhaps even more worrisome to some experts in Washington has been the exceptionally tough language directed against Washington's own condemnation of the coup by top Saudi officials, including King Abdullah, who declared last week that "[t]he kingdom stands ... against all those who try to interfere with its domestic affairs" and charged that criticism of the army crackdown amounted to helping the "terrorists".
Bruce Riedel, a former top CIA Middle East analyst who has advised the Obama administration, called the comments "unprecedented" even if the king did not identify the United States by name.
Chas Freeman, a highly decorated retired foreign service officer who served as US ambassador to Riyadh during the Gulf War, agreed with that assessment.
"I cannot recall any statement as bluntly critical as that," he told IPS, adding that it marked the culmination of two decades of growing Saudi exasperation with US policy - from Washington's failure to restrain Israeli military adventures and the occupation of Palestinian territory to its empowering the Shia majority in Iraq after its 2003 invasion and its abandonment of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and its backing of democratic movements during the "Arab awakening".
"For most of the past seven decades, the Saudis have looked to Americans as their patrons to handle the strategic challenges of their region," Freeman said. "But now the al-Saud partnership with the United States has not only lost most of its charm and utility; it has from Riyadh's perspective become in almost all respects counterproductive."
The result, according to Freeman, has been a "lurch into active unilateral defense of its regional interests", a move that could portend major geo-strategic shifts in the region. "Saudi Arabia does not consider the US a reliable protector, thinks it's on its own, and is acting accordingly."
A number of analysts, including Freeman, have pointed to a July 31 meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Riyadh's national security council and intelligence service, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, as one potentially significant "straw in the wind" regarding the Saudi's changing calculations.
According to a Reuters report, Bandar, who served as Riyadh's ambassador to Washington for more than two decades, offered to buy up to $15 billion in Russian arms and to coordinate energy policy - specifically to prevent Qatar from exporting its natural gas to Europe at Moscow's expense - in exchange for Russia dropping or substantially reducing Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
While Putin, under whom Moscow's relations with Washington appear to have a hit a post-Cold War low recently, was non-committal, Bandar left Moscow encouraged by the possibilities for greater strategic co-operation, according to press reports that drew worried comments from some here.
"[T]he United States is apparently standing on the sidelines - despite being Riyadh's close diplomatic partner for decades, principally in the hitherto successful policy of blocking Russia's influence in the Middle East," wrote Simon Henderson, an analyst at the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"It would be optimistic to believe that the Moscow meeting will significantly reduce Russian support for the Assad regime," he noted. "But meanwhile Putin will have pried open a gap between Riyadh and Washington."
As suggested by Abdullah's remarks, that gap has only widened in the wake of the Egyptian military's bloody crackdown on the Brotherhood this month and steps by Washington to date, including the delay in the scheduled shipment of F-16 fighter jets and the cancellation of joint US-Egyptian military exercises next month, to show disapproval.
US officials have told reporters that Washington is also likely to suspend a shipment of Apache attack helicopters to Cairo unless the regime quickly reverses course.
Meanwhile Moscow, even as it joined the West in appealing for restraint and non-violent solutions to the Egyptian crisis, has also refrained from criticizing the military, while the chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Duma's upper house blamed the United States and the European Union for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
"It is clear that Russia and Saudi Arabia prefer stability in Egypt, and both are betting on the Egyptian military prevailing in the current standoff, and are already acting on that assumption," according to an op-ed that laid out the two countries' common interests throughout the Middle East and was published Sunday by Alarabiya.net, the news channel majority-owned by the Saudi Middle East Broadcasting Center.
Some observers argue that Russia and Saudi Arabia have a shared interest in containing Iran; reducing Turkish influence; co-operating on energy issues; and bolstering autocratic regimes, including Egypt's, at the expense of popular Islamist parties, notably the Brotherhood and its affiliates, across the region.
"There's a certain logic to all that, but it's too early to say whether such an understanding can be reached," said Freeman, who noted that Bandar "wrote the book on outreach to former ideological and geo-strategic enemies", including China, and that his visit to Moscow "looks like classic Saudi breakout diplomacy".
But reaching a deal on Syria would be particularly challenging. While Riyadh assigns higher priority to reducing Iran's regional influence than to removing Assad, some analysts believe there are ways an agreement that would retain him as president could be struck, as Moscow insists, while reducing his power over the opposition-controlled part of the country and weakening his ties to Tehran and Hezbollah.
But Mark N Katz, an expert on Russian Middle East policy at George Mason University, is skeptical about the prospects for a Russian-Saudi entente, noting that Bandar has pursued such a relationship in the past without success.
"I'm not saying it can't work, but this has been his hobby horse," he told IPS. "Whatever happens in Saudi-American relations, however, the Saudis don't trust the Russians and don't want them meddling in the region. Everything about the Russians ticks them off."
He added that Abdullah's harsh criticism was intended more as a "wake-up call" and the fact that "the Saudis are on the same side [in supporting the Egyptian military] as the Israelis has emboldened them".
Saudi Arabia support Egyptian Army while Muslim Brotherhood is backed by US, interesting game.
With Big Promise of Aid, Saudi Arabia Puts Security before Diplomacy
Zainab Abdul Aziz and Carrie Dann, NBC News | Saturday, August 24, 2013
Saudi Arabia’s pledge to replace U.S. aid to Egypt that could be cut in the wake of the military’s bloody crackdown makes clear the American ally’s priority in the Middle East: to keep deposed President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood at bay and its own kingdom secure – even at the risk of stepping on American toes.
“I confirm to everyone, the Saudi Kingdom leaders, government and nation has stood and will forever stand with Egypt and the Arab community will not allow ever to have their fate manipulated or their security and stability tampered with,” an official Saudi news agency quoted Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as saying.
“As for those who announced that they will stop their support to Egypt or threatened to stop it, for the Arab and Muslim world is rich with its people and capabilities and will not hesitate to offer a helping hand to Egypt.”
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait view the Muslim Brotherhood – the Arab world’s most influential Islamist movement – as a significant security threat to the region’s authoritarian governments.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf kingdoms have pledged about $12 billion in aid to Egypt since the army toppledthe democratically elected Morsi on July 3.
“[Saudi Arabia] has stood and stands today with our brothers in Egypt against terrorism, deception and sedition,” King Abdullah said in a speech on Friday addressing the unrest in Egypt, during which he also praised the country’s military leadership.
Experts say it’s not surprising to see Saudi Arabia put security concerns in front of diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia “will step in very, very fast when they feel their interests are in danger,” said Michael Stephens, a Qatar-based researcher at RUSI, an international security think tank. “The kingdom fears that the Muslim Brotherhood would work to subvert [the Gulf] monarchies region-wide.”
Saudi Arabia’s promise to Egypt’s military leadership was in stark contrast to an announcement by American officials that they were reviewing $1.5 billion in annual aid. Some congressional leaders have pressed the Obama administration to cut aid entirely after violence sparked by raids on pro-Morsi camps killed almost 1,000 people.
In the past, American aid to Egypt has included armored personnel carriers, helicopters, anti-aircraft missiles, surveillance systems, fighter jets and tanks, as well as training. The U.S. has poured more than $70 billion in military and economic aid into Egypt since 1948.
About $1.3 billion of the annual U.S. aid is military, which comes back to the United States in spending on things like tanks and planes.
Still, while Saudi Arabia is openly pouring money into a conflict that the U.S. has refrained from calling a coup – doing so would require cutting all military or financial assistance to the country – at least one expert said it would be wrong to interpret Saudi Arabia and the United States’ different reactions to Egypt as a deep split in the relationship.
“The United States may have a broad concern with democracy and human rights. States within the region are more concerned with their security,” said Anthony Cordesman, former national security assistant to Senator John McCain and current Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Saudi security-oriented approach does not mean you can’t have a partnership.”
Cordesman, who has warned against threatening to cut aid to the Egyptians, said the U.S. needs the Saudis “just as much as they need us.”
He added: “We are not in charge.”
There is still some question as to if and what aid to Egypt may actually be cut.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that reports that aid to Egypt had been cut off were “not accurate” and that a review of the assistance package by the president’s national security team remained under way.
“In early July, the president of the United States directed his national security team to conduct a review of the assistance and aid that we provide to Egypt,” Earnest said. “That review that the president ordered in early July has not concluded.”
Earnest repeatedly declined to say whether some aid has been suspended as that review continued, arguing that aid is distributed in “tranches” rather than as a constant “flow” of financial assistance.
“We are considering individual tranches of assistance,” he added.
NBC News’ Zainab Abdul Aziz and Carrie Dann contributed to this report.
The 4th Media » With Big Promise of Aid, Saudi Arabia Puts Security before Diplomacy
Zainab Abdul Aziz and Carrie Dann, NBC News | Saturday, August 24, 2013
Saudi Arabia’s pledge to replace U.S. aid to Egypt that could be cut in the wake of the military’s bloody crackdown makes clear the American ally’s priority in the Middle East: to keep deposed President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood at bay and its own kingdom secure – even at the risk of stepping on American toes.
“I confirm to everyone, the Saudi Kingdom leaders, government and nation has stood and will forever stand with Egypt and the Arab community will not allow ever to have their fate manipulated or their security and stability tampered with,” an official Saudi news agency quoted Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as saying.
“As for those who announced that they will stop their support to Egypt or threatened to stop it, for the Arab and Muslim world is rich with its people and capabilities and will not hesitate to offer a helping hand to Egypt.”
Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait view the Muslim Brotherhood – the Arab world’s most influential Islamist movement – as a significant security threat to the region’s authoritarian governments.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf kingdoms have pledged about $12 billion in aid to Egypt since the army toppledthe democratically elected Morsi on July 3.
“[Saudi Arabia] has stood and stands today with our brothers in Egypt against terrorism, deception and sedition,” King Abdullah said in a speech on Friday addressing the unrest in Egypt, during which he also praised the country’s military leadership.
Experts say it’s not surprising to see Saudi Arabia put security concerns in front of diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia “will step in very, very fast when they feel their interests are in danger,” said Michael Stephens, a Qatar-based researcher at RUSI, an international security think tank. “The kingdom fears that the Muslim Brotherhood would work to subvert [the Gulf] monarchies region-wide.”
Saudi Arabia’s promise to Egypt’s military leadership was in stark contrast to an announcement by American officials that they were reviewing $1.5 billion in annual aid. Some congressional leaders have pressed the Obama administration to cut aid entirely after violence sparked by raids on pro-Morsi camps killed almost 1,000 people.
In the past, American aid to Egypt has included armored personnel carriers, helicopters, anti-aircraft missiles, surveillance systems, fighter jets and tanks, as well as training. The U.S. has poured more than $70 billion in military and economic aid into Egypt since 1948.
About $1.3 billion of the annual U.S. aid is military, which comes back to the United States in spending on things like tanks and planes.
Still, while Saudi Arabia is openly pouring money into a conflict that the U.S. has refrained from calling a coup – doing so would require cutting all military or financial assistance to the country – at least one expert said it would be wrong to interpret Saudi Arabia and the United States’ different reactions to Egypt as a deep split in the relationship.
“The United States may have a broad concern with democracy and human rights. States within the region are more concerned with their security,” said Anthony Cordesman, former national security assistant to Senator John McCain and current Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Saudi security-oriented approach does not mean you can’t have a partnership.”
Cordesman, who has warned against threatening to cut aid to the Egyptians, said the U.S. needs the Saudis “just as much as they need us.”
He added: “We are not in charge.”
There is still some question as to if and what aid to Egypt may actually be cut.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that reports that aid to Egypt had been cut off were “not accurate” and that a review of the assistance package by the president’s national security team remained under way.
“In early July, the president of the United States directed his national security team to conduct a review of the assistance and aid that we provide to Egypt,” Earnest said. “That review that the president ordered in early July has not concluded.”
Earnest repeatedly declined to say whether some aid has been suspended as that review continued, arguing that aid is distributed in “tranches” rather than as a constant “flow” of financial assistance.
“We are considering individual tranches of assistance,” he added.
NBC News’ Zainab Abdul Aziz and Carrie Dann contributed to this report.
The 4th Media » With Big Promise of Aid, Saudi Arabia Puts Security before Diplomacy
Solomon2
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No More Kosher Food from Egypt
Violence in Egypt finally puts an end to kosher food exports.
By Maayana Miskin
First Publish: 8/23/2013, 9:37 AM
The latest violence in Egypt has finally put an end to kosher food exports from the country. Several Egyptian factories that marketed reliably kosher food to Israel will no longer be able to do so.
Over the past two and a half years, kosher certification companies in Israel have continued to send their workers (mashgihim) to Egypt despite political unrest as first Hosni Mubarak and then Mohamed Morsi was ousted from power.
The workers were quietly sent to certify various Egyptian foods as kosher, on the condition of adherence to strict security guidelines.
However, following violent clashes in Cairo this week in which at least 80 people were killed, kosher certification groups have unanimously decided that they cannot risk their staff by sending them to the country at this time.
At a time when we cannot guarantee our workers safety one hundred percent, the policy is not to put them in danger, said a statement from Rabbi David Moskowitz, the Admor of the Shatz Hassidic movement in Ashdod and head of the SKS-Lemehadrin kosher label.
As soon as the violence in Egypt subsides, the question of sending workers to supervise kosher food production will be reconsidered, he added.
Solomon2
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Reeling from crackdown, Egypt's Brotherhood fails to show street power
By REUTERS 08/24/2013 05:20
There were no reports of violence in Cairo, but the Brotherhood's website said one person had been killed in the Nile Delta.
Supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi march in Cairo, August 23, 2013. Photo: REUTERS
CAIRO - Mass protests called by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood mostly failed to materialize on Friday as the movement reels from a bloody army crackdown on followers of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
Troops and police had taken relatively low-key security measures before the "Friday of Martyrs" processions that were to have begun from 28 mosques in the capital after weekly prayers.
But midday prayers were cancelled at some mosques and few major protests unfolded in Cairo, although witnesses said at least 1,000 people staged a march in the Mohandiseen district.
There were no reports of violence in that procession, but the Brotherhood's website said one person had been killed in the Nile Delta town of Tanta in clashes with security forces. The Interior Ministry confirmed the death.
Brotherhood supporters also turned out in Alexandria, several Delta towns, the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, the north Sinai town of Rafah, and Assiut in the south, with minor skirmishes reported in some places.
The Health Ministry said 54 people had been wounded on Friday in Cairo and two Delta provinces, without giving any details of the violence or who was injured.
"We are not afraid; it's victory or death," said Mohamed Abdel Azim, a retired oil engineer who was among about 100 people marching slowly from a mosque near Cairo University.
"They intend to strike at Muslims," the grey-bearded Azim said. "We'd rather die in dignity than live in oppression. We'll keep coming out until there's no one left."
Despite his defiant words, the mood of the protesters seemed subdued, perhaps a sign that the crackdown and the round-up of Brotherhood leaders has chilled the rank-and-file.
Some marchers carried posters of Morsi, who was toppled by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on July 3 after huge demonstrations against his rule. "No to the coup," they chanted.
A militant Islamist group active in the lawless Sinai Peninsula threatened new attacks on the army and police. In a statement published on a jihadist website, the Salafi Muslim group condemned security forces for what it called the "heinous crime" of killing Brotherhood supporters.
It was the first statement from any of the militant groups in the Sinai desert bordering Israel since last Wednesday's violent move by security forces on the Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo.
The number of attacks on security forces in Sinai has jumped since the army removed Morsi. Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 24 policemen on Monday.
"GOD WILL BRING DOWN SISI"
At another small protest in Cairo, a veiled nursery teacher with four children, who gave her name as Nasra, said: "God will make us victorious, even if many of us are hurt and even if it takes a long time. God willing, God will bring down Sisi."
Egypt has endured the bloodiest civil unrest in its modern history since Aug. 14 when police destroyed protest camps set up by Morsi's supporters in Cairo to demand his reinstatement.
The violence has alarmed Egypt's Western allies, although President Barack Obama acknowledged that even a decision to cut off US aid to Cairo might not influence its armed forces.
But he said Washington was re-evaluating its ties with Egypt. "There's no doubt that we can't return to business as usual, given what's happened," he told CNN in an interview.
Some US lawmakers have called for a halt to the $1.5 billion a year given mostly in military assistance to Egypt to bolster its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Military cooperation includes privileged US access to the Suez Canal.
The Brotherhood, hounded by the new army-backed rulers, had called for demonstrations across Egypt against the crackdown, testing the resilience of its battered support base.
Security forces kept a watchful eye, but did not flood the streets, even near Cairo's central Fateh mosque, where gun battles killed scores of people last Friday and Saturday.
The mosque's metal gates and big front door were locked and chained. Prayers were cancelled. Two armored vehicles were parked down the street, where people shopped at a busy market.
Only one riot police truck stood by near Rabaa al-Adawiya square in northeastern Cairo, home to the Brotherhood's biggest protest vigil until police and troops stormed in, killing hundreds of people, bulldozing barricades and burning tents.
SYMBOLIC VICTORY
The mosque there was closed for repairs. Workmen in blue overalls stood on scaffolding as they covered its charred walls with white paint. Children scavenged through piles of garbage.
Troops used barbed wire to block a main road to Nahda Square, the site of the smaller of the two Brotherhood sit-ins.
The authorities declared a month-long state of emergency last week and they enforce a nightly curfew.
An official of the interim government said in a television interview on Friday that the state of emergency and curfew would be reconsidered if the security situation calmed.
Security forces have arrested many leading figures from the Brotherhood, all but decapitating an organization that won five successive votes in Egypt after the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
In a symbolic victory for the army-dominated old order, Mubarak, an ex-military man who ruled Egypt for 30 years, was moved out of jail on Thursday. His successor Mursi, Egypt's first freely-elected president, remains detained incommunicado.
The Brotherhood's "General Guide" Mohamed Badie, who was arrested on Tuesday, is due to go on trial on Sunday along with two other senior figures, Khairat al-Shater and Saad al-Katatni, on charges that include incitement to violence.
More than 1,000 people, including over 100 soldiers and police, have been killed since Morsi's overthrow. Brotherhood supporters say the toll is much higher.
Graffiti on a mosque wall in a rundown Cairo neighborhood illustrated the deep divisions that have emerged since Sisi's takeover. The spray-painted message "Yes to Sisi" had been crossed out and painted over with the word "traitor."
Slogans elsewhere read "Morsi is a spy" and "Morsi out". Someone had also written "Freedom, Justice, Brotherhood".
The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, emerged as Egypt's best-organised political force after Mubarak fell. Its popularity waned during Morsi's year in office when critics accused it of accumulating excessive power, pushing a partisan Islamist agenda and mismanaging the economy.
The Brotherhood, which the new government has threatened to dissolve entirely, says Morsi's administration was deliberately undermined by unreformed Mubarak-era institutions.
Mubarak, 85, still faces retrial on charges of complicity in the killings of protesters, but he left jail on Thursday for the first time since April 2011 and was flown by helicopter to a plush military hospital in the southern Cairo suburb of Maadi.
The authorities have used the state of emergency to keep him under house arrest, apparently to minimize the risk of popular anger if he had been given unfettered freedom.
Ceylal
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Ceylal
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Better days of Egypt are coming.
http://www.elkhabar.com/ar/img/article_large_img/Ph_21_fananat_516301346.jpg
http://www.elkhabar.com/ar/img/article_large_img/Ph_21_fananat_516301346.jpg
Yzd Khalifa
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Erdogan reserves the right to make any comments, but he has no right to cause or inflict damages between Turkey and her traditional allies.
A squabble among them...Question of paycheck
Why on earth would a Mr. Money-bag like Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais want to receive a " paycheck " especially when his family is already ultra rich
islamrules
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KS
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What an irrelevant rant ! Let me rebut it line by line.
hey take your time and type in proper english with proper grammer. I am not able to understand the head or tails of what you are trying to say.
I never supported secession of TN from India. What are you blabbing about ?
When did I say you are not Indian ? Infact my post is why you as a muslim Indian is worried about a completely different set of people in faraway Egypt who have no bearing on Indian political or security situation ? Atleast try to understand why the other is saying before reflexively blurting out words.
So according to you, those who are opposed to Muslim brotherhood (the majority of Egyptians) are not muslims ? What a load of malarkey. You still havent answered my question - what stake do you as a south asian muslim - who has nothing in common with an egyptian except a similar (not same) religion - has in their internal political process ? Do the common egyptian even give a **** to your opinion ? Do those arabs even treat you people their equal ? Why is this obsession with arabs when it doesnt concern you ?
But then I should have guessed - people like you who hark for secularism when in minority do the absolute opposite and support communal theocratic forces like MB who do the absolute opposite when in majority.
hey take your time and type in proper english with proper grammer. I am not able to understand the head or tails of what you are trying to say.
I never supported secession of TN from India. What are you blabbing about ?
When did I say you are not Indian ? Infact my post is why you as a muslim Indian is worried about a completely different set of people in faraway Egypt who have no bearing on Indian political or security situation ? Atleast try to understand why the other is saying before reflexively blurting out words.
So according to you, those who are opposed to Muslim brotherhood (the majority of Egyptians) are not muslims ? What a load of malarkey. You still havent answered my question - what stake do you as a south asian muslim - who has nothing in common with an egyptian except a similar (not same) religion - has in their internal political process ? Do the common egyptian even give a **** to your opinion ? Do those arabs even treat you people their equal ? Why is this obsession with arabs when it doesnt concern you ?
But then I should have guessed - people like you who hark for secularism when in minority do the absolute opposite and support communal theocratic forces like MB who do the absolute opposite when in majority.
Ceylal
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There is no bad deed that goes unrewarded, palWhy on earth would a Mr. Money-bag like Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais want to receive a " paycheck " especially when his family is already ultra rich
..and he is no different than the others...Similar threads
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