US ready to evacuate Egypt embassy: Analyst

Source : islamicinvitationturkey.com

As tensions rise in Egypt over clashes between the supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi, the U.S. is prepared to evacuate its embassy in the capital Cairo, if the situation spirals out of control, Press TV reports.

Violence escalated in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Friday and three people, including a young American journalist, were killed.

“The death of an American is an indication that the situation in Egypt is increasingly getting out of control,” said Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon official, in an interview on Saturday.

“ [The fact that] U.S. Marines are on standby and ships are in the Red Sea would indicate that they are preparing more to evacuate the embassy in the event of total unrest and the inability of the Egyptian government to protect the embassy and the American personnel there,” he added.

Meanwhile, the United States is deploying about 400 troops to Egypt. The troops have been training for months at Fort Hood, Texas.

“I doubt that the U.S. has any further designs other than to use the Marines to protect the evacuation of U.S. personnel,” Maloof noted.

The U.S. State Department has warned Americans to put off unnecessary trips to Egypt and has allowed some diplomatic staff to leave the North African country.

President Barack Obama said in South Africa on Saturday that U.S.’s “immediate concern” was with protecting its embassy and consulates, and their staff.

An “unprecedented exodus” has been reported from Egypt. Officials say that all flights leaving for Europe, the U.S. and the Gulf are fully booked.

Egypt’s opposition groups have rejected Morsi’s recent invitation for national reconciliation and called for demonstrations on Sunday, the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration.

Six people, including a former MP from Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, have been killed in the renewed violence in Egypt this week.

Protests in Egypt Denounce Qatar Interference

Source :  http://www.almanar.com.lb

Demonstrators in Egypt have burned Qatari and Israeli flags in protest against what they described as the Gulf state’s interference in their country’s internal affairs.

Protesters gathered outside the Qatari Embassy in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and chanted anti-Doha slogans.

Demonstrators believe that Doha and Tel Aviv are meddling in Egypt’s domestic affairs after the 2011 revolution that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

On January 10, Doha said it had offered Egypt a lifeline of $.5-billion to help the North African country tackle its currency crisis.

“There was an initial package of $2.5 billion, of which $0.5 billion was a grant and two billion dollars a deposit,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said in reference to the financial aid Qatar has provided Egypt with since the revolution.

“We discussed transferring one of the deposits into an additional grant so that the grants became one billion dollars and the deposits doubled to around four billion dollars,” he added.

The Egyptians have also held several massive protests across the country since the revolution, calling on the government to sever all the existing ties with the Zionist entity

Unknown group attacks presidential palace, police arrest 15 - Politics - Egypt

Source : Ahram Online

A group of masked assailants torched a police vehicle near the presidential palace Friday evening on Al- Marghany Street in the Cairo district of Heliopolis, after short clashes with security forces at the palace.

Dozens of unknown assailants threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and rocks at one of the entrances to the palace and the security forces protecting it. The security forces pushed back the protesters, dispersing them with teargas grenades.

News reports are claiming that the assailants are members of the Black Bloc and Revolutionary Ultras groups.

Police announced later that it arrested 15 people who allegedly carried the attack on the presidential palace. At the time of publication, traffic around Al-Marghany and Khalifa Al-Mamoun streets was at a standstill.

Security source: More than 30 police stations closed in past few hours

Source : Egypt Independent

Police officers closed more than 30 police stations in the past few hours to protest the way Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim is running the ministry, a senior security source at the Interior Ministry said Thursday, state news agency MENA reported.

The source said in a press statement that police stations in Cairo, Giza, Ismailia, Port Said, Minya, Sohag, Daqahlia, Gharbiya, Sharqiya and Alexandria closed their doors, and many Central Security Forces departments went on strike nationwide.

Security leaders are reviewing the officers’ demands and trying to convince them to return to work, the source said, according to MENA.

Six police stations closed Thursday in Cairo and Giza in solidarity with the strikes in other governorates, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm. The Qasr al-Nil, Old Cairo, Matareya, Nasr City, Shorouk and Dokki police stations all shut their doors.

Police officers said they would continue to protest until the minister decides they are properly armed to face riots.Officers also demanded Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim’s dismissal.

Many policemen have died in clashes with protesters, and they say they were not armed to defend themselves.

Police in Alexandria shut down the security directorate’s gate and held banners that read “Leave, Brotherhood minister” and “The police is in the service of the people, not killers.”

In Media Production City in 6th of October, dozens of police officers demanded a law to protect them from repeated attacks by anti-government protests, and called for equal wages for police officers of all ranks.

Central Security Forces in the Suez Canal and Delta cities, which account for one-fifth of the CSF's overall forces, have continued their sit-ins and refused to carry out any of their normal activities.

The first of the CSF sit-ins began in the Delta city of Mansoura Tuesday and spread to Suez Canal cities Wednesday, when CSF officers rejected orders to deploy to Port Said to provide backup for security forces that began clashing with anti-government protesters Sunday.

Members of the CSF and other security forces participating in the sit-ins say that they do not want to be involved in handling security incidents in Tahrir Square. The police force in charge of securing the president’s home in Sharqiya also refused to carry out its work Thursday.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

“Supporting Palestinian Nation Rights Iran’s Strategy”

Source : http://www.almanar.com.lb

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that supporting the rights of the Palestinian nation is a major strategy of Iran.

He made the remarks in Cairo in a meeting with the Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas which took place at the sideline of the 12th Summit of Organization of the Islamic Cooperation.

Praising the United Nations recognition of Palestine as a non-membe state, Ahmadinejad said the Zionist regime was already objecting to such recognition.

He said he was confident that nations are to meet a better destiny i they continue with resistance to the bullying powers, calling fo supporting Palestinian nation.

The Iranian President said enemies have been benefiting from disagreements within the Palestinian nation but there is high hope tha efforts underway to create unity among them will be fruitful.

Abbas, for his part, appreciated Iran’s supports for the Palestinian nation stating that Iranian brothers have always stood by the oppressed nation of Palestine.

Pointing to west’s pressures and the negative attitudes of a number o western and Arab governments towards membership of Palestine in the United Nations, he said Palestinians will safeguard their achievemen which he said is a big one.

Referring to his efforts to establish unity and reconciliation amon Palestinian groups, Abbas noted that the Palestinian youth are as befor seeking new ways to continue with resistance movement.

Iran to scrap visas for Egyptians

Source : Vesti Kavkaza

Iran will lift visa requirements for Egyptian tourists and businessmen, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Ashark Alawsat.

A declaration will be made today during the final session of the OIC summit in Cairo.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the first high-ranking Iranian official to visit Egypt in the past 33 years. He invited Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to visit Tehran.

Gunmen shoot birdshot at Egypt protesters; 15 hurt

Source : TimesRepublican.com

CAIRO (AP) — A dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late Saturday at protesters who have camped outside Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo for the past month, wounding several along with security forces standing watch nearby, witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of shootings of protesters in Egypt.

Paramedic Mohammed Sultan put the total number of wounded in the attack at 15, including nine members of the security forces and six protesters.

The witnesses said attackers also threw Molotov cocktails at protesters' tents, setting some on fire. Footage on Egyptian TV stations showed more people coming to join the protests.

The sit-in was started Dec. 4 by opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They are demanding the annulment of Egypt's new Islamist-backed constitution. The document deeply polarized Egyptians but passed by a 64 percent "yes" vote in a referendum in which around 33 percent of voters participated. Critics called the process flawed.

The political conflict has been accompanied by street violence. At least 10 people died in clashes outside the palace on Dec. 5 that broke out when supporters of Morsi attacked the sit-in. Some were reportedly killed by gunfire.

On Dec. 31, gunmen shot and critically wounded a well-known activist at the site of another sit-in in downtown Cairo's Tahrir square. Police said they arrested a cafe owner who told them that he fired on the square after people manning makeshift checkpoints there searched his car and shot at him.

The current attack comes two weeks before the anniversary of the Jan. 25 start of the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Activists opposed to Morsi are expected to organize large protests that day.

Earlier Saturday, a Cairo court ordered a religious TV program hosted by a fiery preacher off the air on charges of libeling and defaming a well-known actress, one of three legal reverses that day suffered by Islamists in cases related to the media.

The court ruled that the program "In The Scale" be suspended for 30 days following a lawsuit by Elham Chahine. A widely circulated video clip shows the program's host, Abdullah Badr, accusing Chahine of practicing "prostitution" and "teaching Egyptians how to strip naked, make love and commit adultery."

"Go ask God for forgiveness for your scandals," he says in the August interview. Chahine's lawyer said in court that the actress had been exposed to "insults, cursing and humiliation."

Last month, Badr was sentenced to a year in jail over the same charges. The program is aired on el-Hafiz TV, one of several networks associated with the ultraconservative Salafi Islamist movement.

In another case, a court dropped one of several lawsuits filed against popular satirist Bassem Youssef, known as Egypt's Jon Stewart. Youssef had been accused of "corrupting morals" and violating "religious principles" in his show, "The Program," in which he frequently mocks ultraconservative clerics and Islamists.

He still faces trial on March 9 on charges of insulting President Mohammed Morsi, a lawsuit that was leveled by lawyers associated with the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, the Muslim Brotherhood. This is one of many cases brought against media personalities who criticized the president. Morsi's office maintains that the president has nothing to do with the legal procedures against his critics.

In a separate court cast, a court ruled that Dream TV, a private liberal- leaning network that is sharply critical of the Brotherhood, could resume broadcasting. Egypt's Islamist minister of information Salah Abdel-Makksoud suspended it for an alleged zoning violation and broadcasting from outside an authorized area.

Opposition Tent Camp Attacked in Cairo, Ten Injured

Source : RIA Novosti

CAIRO, January 13 (RIA Novosti) - About ten people were injured in the Egyptian capital Cairo when a group of unidentified men attacked an opposition tent camp, the country’s interior ministry said on Sunday.

According to the ministry’s emergency report, a group of armed men hurled Moltov cocktails at a tent camp outside the presidential palace in the Al-Ittihadia district. Several tents caught fire.

Sporadic fights broke out when the sit-in participants clashed with the attackers.

Palace guards used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Over ten people were wounded, some of them were rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

The interior ministry said an officer and six police were injured the fighting.

The violence was eventually quelled, but the situation remains tense in downtown Cairo.

The area outside the presidential palace became a scene of deadly clashes a month ago, following a political crisis triggered by President Mohammed Morsi's November 22 constitutional declaration.

Half ton of explosives seized in Suez

Source : Egypt Independent

Suez police forces seized 500 kilograms of explosives on Friday believed to have been en route to South Sinai.

Major General Abdel Refaat, the Suez security chief, was notified that smugglers in Cairo were preparing to transport the explosives, which are used to create tunnels through mountains for mining.

Police set up ambushes along the Suez-Ahmed Hamdy Tunnel Road and apprehended the smuggler’s vehicle, arresting the suspect. The suspect confessed to being on his way to South Sinai to hand the explosives over to other smugglers.

Egypt says Fatah, Hamas agree to enact unity deal

Source : Maan News Agency

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -- An Egyptian official said the leaders of Hamas and Fatah factions had agreed at talks in Cairo on Wednesday to implement a long-delayed reconciliation pact, although it was unclear if the deal would extend beyond holding more talks.

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement based in the West Bank and Khaled Mashaal of the Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip met face-to-face for the first time in over a year to discuss how to implement their 2011 deal.

The rivals fell out badly when Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah by force in 2007. But the have drawn closer since Israel's assault on Gaza in November, in which Hamas claimed victory, an a diplomatic win by Abbas the same month in which the United Nations voted to recogniz Palestine as a "non-member state".

"It was agreed that sides would begin immediately to implement the previously agreed mechanism of the agreement signed," a senior Egyptian official involved in the talks, who declined to b named, told Reuters by phone from Cairo.

Nabil Abu Rdaineh, a senior aide to Abbas, said the president had held a lengthy meeting wit Meshaal in a "positive atmosphere". He said there was an agreement to hold more meetings, bu declined to give details. No comment was immediately available from Hamas.

The two sides have signally failed to put into practice the deal they signed in Cairo in May 2011 t reunify the leadership of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

The Egyptian official said discussions to find ways to do so had been held in a "positive spirit", an that the rival factions would meet again in the first week of February to work out a timetable.

Egyptian mediators had hoped to coax Abbas and Mashaal into a meeting with Egyptian Presiden Muhammad Mursi, but in the event they met without Mursi. Abbas is reluctant to accept an format that would imply giving the Hamas leader a status equivalent to his own.

Hamas chief arrives in Egypt for reconciliation talks

Source : Xinhua | English.news.cn

CAIRO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The politburo chief of Islamic Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal arrived Tuesday in Egypt's capital of Cairo where he is expected to hold talks with Egyptian top officials over the issue of Palestinian reconciliation, official news agency MENA reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to visit Egypt Wednesday, responding to an invitation from Egypt to resume talks on the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation.

"Abbas will meet Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to discuss bilateral relations as well as the Palestinian reconciliation file sponsored by Egypt," Palestinian ambassador to Egypt Barakat al- Farra told Xinhua.

Morsi, Abbas and Meshaal are expected to hold a meeting together Wednesday, which al-Farra could not confirm yet.

Al Jazeera studio in Cairo set ablaze after angry protest

Source : Reuters

(Reuters) - A studio used by the Al Jazeera TV network in Cairo was set on fire on Wednesday in an attack that an employee said was carried out by a mob that had been chanting slogans against the Qatari-owned station.

The studio overlooks Tahrir Square and is located near the scene of violent clashes between youths and the security forces this week in which dozens of people have been injured. Those confrontations grew out of protests to mark the first anniversary of lethal street battles in the same area.

The first-floor office used by Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, a station set up after the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, was badly damaged by fire.

The studio's windows were smashed and two empty bottles, which had apparently been converted into fire bombs, were found inside the office.

The channel was dedicated to covering Egyptian affairs.

The Interior Ministry described the perpetrators as "trouble makers" who had attacked po officers when they had arrived to investigate, the state news agency reported. The public prosecutor has ordered an investigation.

"There were 200 to 250 people gathered outside the studio chanting against the channel," Ahmed Dessouki, a producer with the channel, told Reuters television.

(Additional reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

EU calls on Muslim Governments to Protest Embassies

BRUSSELS, September 15 (RIA Novosti) Tags: "Innocence of Muslims", Christopher Stevens, Catherine Ashton Chief EU diplomat Catherine Ashton strongly condemned the attacks on Western diplomatic missions in several Muslim countries and urged the local authorities to ensure their security. "I have been following the development with great concern and urge the national authorities of the affected countries to quickly ensure the safety of diplomatic missions and to protect diplomatic personnel," she said in a statement to RIA Novosti. Riots erupted across the Muslim world this week in response to an American anti-Islam video, "Innocence of Muslims," posted to the Internet on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three others were killed in Benghazi on Tuesday in one of the first of several such riots, which have since spread to Tunisia and Sudan, among other predominantly Muslim countries. About 5,000 rioters also attacked the Embassies of Germany and the U.K. in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Analyse of suspect gunmen clash: Sinai/Egypt

My intuition says that the #BIGBang is starting at #Egypt/#Sinai peninsula. The bursts there Egypt air force has pounded hideouts of suspect gunmen (#Hamas sayd #Mossad was behind these attack) killing 20 at least in near #Rafah (#MENA) as sign for #WorldWarIII all over - #Israel #Russia #US #EU ect. |#al_Arish |[filter#Cairo%+XC#Iran%91-Ah88]...targets #Gaza tunnels after action. BraΠichild™ (@brani_child)