- 17 nov 2010
Israel Asks Egypt To Release A Spy In Exchange For Egyptian Detainees
An Israeli official presented an offer to Egypt to release a spy detained by Cairo in exchange for releasing a number of Egyptian detainees.
The offer was presented by Ayyoub al-Qarra, the vice-minister of the Negev and Galilee Development Ministry in Israel during a meeting, held Tuesday, with the Egyptian Minister, Waleed al-Sharif, in Eilat, Israeli sources reported.
The spy, Odah Tarabeen, was arrested and imprisoned by Egypt eleven years ago after he was convicted of spying on Cairo on behalf of the Israeli intelligence. He was sentenced to fifteen years.
Al-Qarra suggested holding a swap deal in which Tarabeen is sent to Israel, and in return Tel Aviv will be releasing a number of Egyptian detainees.
The Egyptian Ambassador said that he will present the proposal to official at the Egyptian government.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59927
14 feb 2011, 12:58 , Respect -
Maria 18 nov 2010
Egypt criticizes US for trying to act as 'caretaker'
CAIRO (AFP) -- Egypt accused the United States on Thursday of meddling in its affairs in an unusually harsh criticism after Washington called for foreign monitors in this month's election and met with a group pressing for reform.
"The latest positions taken by the administration towards internal Egyptian affairs is something that is absolutely unacceptable," the Foreign Ministry said of the country's ally.
Egypt was particularly upset over a 2 November meeting in Washington between US President Barack Obama's national security advisors and a group of US foreign policy analysts who are pushing for reforms in Egypt.
The bi-partisan group was described as "the same type of groups that want to spread chaos in the Middle East."
On Monday, the State Department called on Egypt to hold a free election and allow international monitors to observe the November 28 parliamentary poll.
Past elections have been marred by violence and irregularities, and Egyptian rights groups say the vote has already been compromised by the arrests of many opposition activists.
Rights groups also say rights violations such as torture are routine in the country, which the government denies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=334132
18 feb 2011, 11:25 , Respect -
Maria 19 nov 2010
Fatah officers, tribesmen clash in upper Egypt
El-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- a number of Palestinian officers affiliated to Fatah movement living in the Egyptian town of El-Arish clashed with Egyptian citizens from the Al-Fawakhriyeh tribe in a northern Sinai brawl Thursday night.
The severity of the clash led to a closure of the road between the city and Rafah, the border town split between Egypt and Gaza, for more than two hours overnight. Police said several cars were damaged and one man injured before police and security forces arrived on the scene.
According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri, a Palestinian officer renting an apartment from one of the sons of the tribe in El-Arish got into a fight with his landlord, and was told to get out of the apartment immediately.
During the ensuing clash, which fellow Fatah-affiliates living in the region soon joined, the two sides exchanged gunfire, injuring one man from the Al-Fawakhriyeh tribe, who was evacuated to hospital for treatment, officers told Ma'an.
Two were said to have been arrested, one from each side of the fray, and were taken in for questioning.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=334175
Egypt rejects US meddling in internal affairs
CAIRO Egypt said Thursday it was dismayed by Washington's call for foreign monitors to observe the country's upcoming parliamentary elections, describing it as meddling in its internal affairs.
A statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the US was acting like an "overseer" and was not respecting Egypt's sovereignty.
"It seems that the US insists on not respecting the privacy of the Egyptian society and making statements that incense Egypt's nationalism," said the statement.
Egypt has rejected calls for allowing international observers to monitor the vote saying it would be a violation of its sovereignty, instead saying local groups could do the job.
http://bit.ly/bcAXqj
22 feb 2011, 12:27 , Respect -
Maria 23 nov 2010
Egyptian government: Israeli border fence not our concern
CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman, Husam Zaki, said that his government was not concerned with the Israeli border fence as long as it is being built in Israel.
The Egyptian official told the CNN on Monday night that Egypt had repeatedly declared its position, adding that Cairo does not oppose or support the building of the fence.
He said that as long as the barrier is being built away from Egyptian territory and does not harm Egyptian interests and sovereignty then it would be dealt with as an Israeli internal affair.
Zaki pointed out that the construction works that started on Monday were not the first stage of the fence but rather the last stage.
The Israeli barrier, which also includes installation of electronic monitoring equipment, would cost around 373 million dollars and was meant to ward off growing infiltration attempts by Africans looking for jobs and asylum in Israel.
http://bit.ly/dXdwmI
17 mar 2011, 17:06 , Respect -
Maria 26 nov 2010
Official: Mossad behind Egypt riots
Following confrontations in Cairo between Christian Copts and Muslims, chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee in Egypt's People's Assembly says Israel 'wants to undermine security and stability in country'
Who's responsible for this week's riots in Egypt, which left one man killed and dozens injured? Chairman of the Egypt People's Assembly' Foreign Affairs Committee Dr. Dr Mostafa El Feki on Thursday accused the Israeli Mossad of being behind the recent riots between Christian Copts and Muslims.
Recently there have been a number of incidents between the Copts and the Muslims, which forced the involvement of Egyptian security forces.
One man was killed and dozens were injured on Wednesday in confrontations between the Copts and security forces in the Giza area of Cairo after he local governor revoked a construction permit for a building adjacent to the church which was meant to serve the community's needs.
At a conference in Ain Shams University El Feki said, "It is very clear that Western fingers are disrupting our nation's capabilities and taking advantage of the election period to carry out their plans, to agitate the security and stability in Egypt.
"It is almost certain that the Mossad is involved in these events. The State is dealing with dangerous events that could not have succeeded without external intervention with Israel at its head."
Christian Copts make up ten percent of Egypt's population of 79 million. They claim that the Egyptian regime discriminates against them and harasses them over their religious beliefs. They are protesting the fact that unlike the Muslims, they must request permission to construct any community buildings, whereas the Muslims are allowed to build freely.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3990229,00.html
22 mar 2011, 13:23 , Respect -
Maria 27 nov 2010
Muslim Brotherhood threatens to sever Israel ties
Badie: We won't let Palestinians starve
Egypt's Opposition leader says 'illicit marriage with Tel Aviv' will be scrapped if elections won.
Egypt's Opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, is threatening to end ties with Israel if it emerges victorious from an upcoming vote for parliament.
"We are totally unhappy with the illicit marriage between Cairo and Tel Aviv," said Mohammed Badie, the leader of the group which spawned Hamas.
The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Saturday that Badie threatened to "cause a stir in many values that have caused Egypt to hit rock bottom in recent years, during which the leading party has reigned".
"Leaders of the regime know that if we rise to power we will change many aspects of its policy, first and foremost relations with Israel, which have contributed significantly to the maladies that have ailed us," Badie said.
"We will not allow the Palestinians to die of hunger and close the door on them while opening it to Israelis who can enter Sinai whenever they so choose."
The speaker of the Egyptian People's Assembly, Fathi Sarour, said Friday that pressure imposed by the US on Egypt to reform its election process may spawn a religious takeover in politics.
"Any American pressure could bring on a change in the government that separates between religion and state and turn it into a religious regime," he told AFP, adding that there was a chance the Muslim Brotherhood could ascend to power.
Many experts disagree, however, as the Opposition party currently holds a fifth of parliament seats and is not expected to gain any ground.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3990446,00.html
30 mar 2011, 13:13 , Respect -
Maria 30 nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Mubarak told US to allow dictator in Iraq
CAIRO (AFP) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak advised the United States in 2008 to "forget" about democracy in Iraq and allow a dictator to take over, according to a diplomatic cable released this week on WikiLeaks.
Mubarak made the comments during talks with visiting US congressmen to whom he also admitted that he was "terrified" by the possibility of a nuclear Iran, in the cable sent home from the US embassy.
He noted to the US delegation he had advised Washington against the 2003 invasion of Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein.
But now that they had troops in mainly Shiite Iraq, American troops should not withdraw because that would only serve to strengthen Shiite Iran next door.
"You cannot leave" because "you would leave Iran in control," the diplomatic dispatch, dated May 27, 2008 according to the website, quoted him as saying.
"Mubarak explained his recipe for going forward," the cable said.
"Strengthen the (Iraqi) armed forces, relax your hold, and then you will have a coup. Then we will have a dictator, but a fair one. Forget democracy, the Iraqis by their nature are too tough," Mubarak said in the cable.
He said he would never accept a nuclear Iran and acknowledged: "We are all terrified."
Mubarak said he told former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to tell his hardline successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not to "provoke" Washington into striking Iran.
Egypt would begin its own nuclear programme if Iran's succeeded, he was quoted as saying.
The congressmen also met Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who "advocated making Iran suffer economically to be 'too busy with its people' to make problems in Iraq."
The memo was marked confidential and addressed to the US secretary of state at the time, Condoleezza Rice.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337481
Israeli officials accused Egypt of undermining ties, WikiLeaks cable shows
The cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, quoted Uzi Arad, chairman of Israel's National Security Council, as accusing Egypt's Foreign Ministry of harming relations with Jerusalem.
Israeli officials lashed out at Egypt over its attitude toward Israel's nuclear program during talks with American officials last year, according to a U.S. Embassy cable published by the website WikiLeaks on Sunday as part of the vast cache of State Department documents it released.
The cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, quoted Uzi Arad, chairman of Israel's National Security Council, as accusing Egypt's Foreign Ministry of harming relations with Jerusalem.
On December 1, 2009, Ellen Tauscher, the U.S. under secretary for arms control and international security affairs, arrived in Israel for meetings with government officials. The central topic of discussion was preparations for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference that took place six months later in New York.
In the lead-up to the summit, Egypt applied heavy pressure on the U.S. to support a call for the supervision of Israel's nuclear facilities and the convening of an international summit on denuclearizing the Middle East.
Tauscher met with a group of high-ranking Israeli officials involved with the nuclear issue and asked that Israel show flexibility on its nuclear facilities ahead of the conference. But she pledged that her government would consult with Israel on the matter and not take any action that might undermine its security.
Six months later, however, Washington succumbed to Egyptian pressure: Despite Israel's pleas, it allowed the conference to pass a resolution condemning Israel for not opening its nuclear facilities to inspection.
According to the document, Arad described Egypt's Foreign Ministry as a "'nagging problem' in the relationship, particularly regarding the proposal for a nuclear-free Middle East, and noted that Israel wanted to see a 'reversal of trends' from Egypt regarding Iran's nuclear program."
The cable also said Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's political security department, had described Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as lacking confidence in his foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and recommended that Washington deal directly with the president. Tauscher concurred, and said she would try to circumvent Egypt's Foreign Ministry in her dealings with the Mubarak government.
The documents shed light on Israeli political squabbling as well. On April 18, 2007, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv sent a cable summarizing a meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu, then opposition leader, and visiting U.S. congressmen in which Netanyahu lambasted then-prime minister Ehud Olmert for his handling of the Second Lebanon War.
The document paraphrased Netanyahu as saying that "If Olmert had mobilized the reserves in ten days, seized ground, destroyed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and then withdrawn, he would be a hero today." Since he did not, Netanyahu predicted, Olmert would not remain in power for long.
Netanyahu described Olmert as being under tremendous political pressure between investigations into his alleged criminal wrongdoing and the interim conclusions of the Winograd Commission investigating the war.
"Olmert could be pushed out as a result of a rebellion within the Kadima Party," the cable said, paraphrasing Netanyahu. "Kadima members are realizing they cannot allow Olmert to stay in power, but Kadima itself might collapse since it was a 'fake party.'"
Some of the documents highlighted Israel's increasingly tense relations with Turkey. James F. Jeffrey, then U.S. ambassador to Ankara, wrote in an April 26, 2009 cable of his meeting with Gabby Levy, then Israel's ambassador to Turkey. At the meeting, held a year before Israel's raid on a Turkish-sponsored flotilla to Gaza, Levy blamed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the deterioration in once-friendly relations.
The Israeli envoy, the cable said, "noted that the prime minister's party had not gained a single point in the polls from his bashing of Israel. Instead, Levy attributed Erdogan's harshness to deep-seated emotion: 'He's a fundamentalist. He hates us religiously' and his hatred is spreading."
Adding his own analysis, Jeffrey concluded, "Our discussions with contacts both inside and outside of the Turkish government on Turkey's deteriorating relations with Israel tend to confirm Levy's thesis that Erdogan simply hates Israel."
A May 16, 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv discussed Israel's secret ties to the United Arab Emirates. Quoting Yaakov Hadas, the head of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East department, it said UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan "has developed good personal relations with Foreign Minister [Tzipi] Livni, but the Emiratis are 'not ready to do publicly what they say in private.'"
http://bit.ly/g8tfRT
11 apr 2011, 19:32 , Respect -
Maria 1 dec 2010
Report: Egypt financing underground Gaza wall
CAIRO (Ma'an) -- An underground steel wall on the Egyptian-Gaza border is valued at $40 million and is due to be completed in December 2010, a US Embassy cable has reportedly revealed.
The cable, dated 20 December 2009, was leaked to the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
It reveals that the wall is being constructed with Egyptian government money, while a tunnel detection system is being funded and built by the United States, according to the report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337944
22 apr 2011, 10:23 , Respect -
Maria 13 dec 2010
Migrant shot near Egypt-Israel border
GAZA (Ma'an) -- Egyptian forces shot and injured a Georgian migrant trying to enter Israel, security sources said.
Soldiers patrolling the border region were said to have seen the man proceeding toward the border, eight kilometers south of Israel near the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
Forces opened fire when he refused to stop, an Egyptian official told Ma'an. The man was transferred to the Rafah hospital.
In the same area, authorities detained four Eritrean migrants said to be attempting to enter Israel, the official said.
During questioning, those detained said they paid smugglers $1,000 to illegally enter Israel and find work.
The detainees said smuggling gangs are detaining dozens of African migrants who can't afford to pay them, an Egyptian source said.
On Tuesday, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it was concerned that about 250 Eritrean migrants were believed to be held hostage in the Sinai desert.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday his country had no information concerning the report.
"The interior ministry, which is always in contact with the foreign ministry, has no information whatsoever about reports that hundreds of Eritreans are held hostage in Sinai," Abul Gheit said.
Security officials said on Wednesday that 82 Eritreans and Ethiopians were arrested north of Suez city overnight as they were heading to the Sinai by bus en route to Israel to look for work.
The Sinai desert border is a major smuggling route for African migrants seeking jobs. Thousands of Eritreans each year flee the country, with many heading for Israel.
In August, seven people were killed in clashes with smugglers and police near the border with Israel after African migrants being held by smugglers seized the weapons of their captors in a bid to escape.
Israel began work in November on a 250-kilometer fence along the border aimed at stopping the influx of migrants.
AFP contributed to this report
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=341561
1 may 2011, 14:12 , Respect -
Maria 17 dec 2010
Former Egyptian official: Israel plans to reoccupy the Sinai Peninsula
CAIRO, (PIC)-- Hassan Esa, the former Egyptian official in the ministry of foreign affairs, has warned of Israeli attempts to reoccupy the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula indirectly, noting that the Israelis were publicly talking about the "hope to return to Sinai".
"Israel will not relax and feel comfortable unless it reoccupied the Sinai Peninsula due to strategic, economic, and religious reasons", warned Esa who was handling the file of Israel at the ministry.
He also explained that the Israeli occupation government sends Israeli girls to the Peninsula to establish sexual relationships with Arab Bedouins there to have children, and then claim that they have the right to stay in the Peninsula for having Egyptian children.
He also highlighted that "Israel" was and still is striving hard to achieve the dream of returning to the Sinai.
He noted that after the signing of the Camp David treaty in 1979, and the following Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Peninsula in 1982 as stipulated in the agreement, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said, "Israel would have been in a better condition had the Sinai Peninsula remained in its hand without a peace agreement".
Furthermore, Esa opined that the Israeli occupation government's keenness to dispatch more Israeli "tourists" to the Peninsula was part of the Israeli scheme to always link Jews to Sinai.
http://bit.ly/hoGXA
1 may 2011, 16:24 , Respect -
Maria 18 dec 2010
Egyptian security detains 34 African migrants
EL-ARISH (Ma'an) -- Egyptian security officials said its officers captured 34 African migrants en route to Israel from the northern Egyptian Sinai in three separate incidents on Friday.
Egyptian police patrolling the area south of the Israel border in the central Sinai Peninsula reportedly detained 14 migrants from Eretria, Sudan, and Ethiopia while they were trying to illegally cross into Israel.
The report said the detention was carried out without incident.
In a second incident also in the central Sinai, where police said they detained 15 migrants several kilometers away from the border area.
Five other migrants from Sudan were detained south of the border city of Rafah, police said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=343072
5 may 2011, 22:54 , Respect -
Maria 25 dec 2010
Rights groups demand end to Palestinian suffering in Egyptian jails
CAIRO, (PIC)-- Three rights groups in Egypt are calling on their government to disclose the number and details of Palestinians in the country's jails.
They are currently suffering tough and inhumane conditions that violate the law, Egyptian constitution, and international conventions which Egypt had undersigned, said the Shihab center for human rights, the Baladi association for the development of democracy, and the victims' human rights center in a statement they jointly released Friday.
Haytham Abu Khalil, director of the victims' rights center, told Al-Jazeera that Egypt has been deliberately arresting resistance fighters to use them as leverage in dealing with the Hamas government in Gaza.
The rights center has adopted an e-campaign with several more activists working to free all of the Palestinians, Khalil said. The site collects pictures of some of the detainees forced into Egyptian custody for years without charges.
Mohib Abud, head of the Baladi association for the development of democracy, criticized what he called irresponsible moves by the Egyptian government, and the continued detention of Palestinians without legal cause, and the torture they are exposed to.
On his part, Khalaf Bayoumi, the director of Shihab center, threatened he would file a suit against the Egyptian government in the international criminal court if the names and reasons of arrest of the Palestinian detainees were not released.
http://bit.ly/dQdY1I
16 may 2011, 14:30 , Respect -
Maria 26 dec 2010
Egypt building watchtowers near Gaza
Egypt is building surveillance towers along the border with the Gaza Strip as part of its measures to step up restrictions on the besieged coastal enclave.
Egyptian security officials said on Saturday that the first of the steel and concrete towers, measuring almost 100 feet (30.5 meters) in height, near the Rafah Crossing, is almost completed, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the structures were being built to improve the monitoring of movements along the border.
Cairo is also constructing an underground steel wall to disrupt a network of tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, which the Palestinians use to import basic food items and other supplies into the blockaded territory.
Egyptian authorities regularly fill the tunnels with gas or flood them with water and the underground lifelines are frequently bombed by Israeli fighter jets.
The construction of the steel wall and observation towers has caused tension between Egypt and other countries in the region.
In 2009, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah criticized Egypt over the construction of the underground steel wall, saying it would "terminate the thin veins, which are giving some life and some hope to Gaza."
Israel has imposed a crippling land and sea siege on the Gaza Strip for over three years, pushing the densely-populated coastal sliver, which is home to 1.5 million Palestinians, to the verge of starvation.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/157161.html
18 may 2011, 12:56 , Respect -
Maria 31 dec 2010
Israel shocked by Obama's "betrayal" of Mubarak
If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.
Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told ministers of the Jewish state to make no comment on the political cliffhanger in Cairo, to avoid inflaming an already explosive situation. But Israel's President Shimon Peres is not a minister.
"We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak," he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. "I don't say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East."
Newspaper columnists were far more blunt.
One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks.
Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"
"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."
Obama on Sunday called for an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt, stopping short of calling on Mubarak to step down, but signaling that his days may be numbered. [nN30161335]
"AMERICA HAS LOST IT"
Netanyahu instructed Israeli ambassadors in a dozen key capitals over the weekend to impress on host governments that Egypt's stability is paramount, official sources said.
"Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications," Haaretz daily quoted one official as saying.
Egypt, Israel's most powerful neighbor, was the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state, in 1979. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the treaty, was assassinated two years later by an Egyptian fanatic.
It took another 13 years before King Hussein of Jordan broke Arab ranks to made a second peace with the Israelis. That treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated one year later, in 1995, by an Israeli fanatic.
There have been no peace treaties since. Lebanon and Syria are still technically at war with Israel. Conservative Gulf Arab regimes have failed to advance their peace ideas. A hostile Iran has greatly increased its influence in the Middle East conflict.
http://reut.rs/gY5HfQ
Egypt detains 48 African migrants
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian security sources said 48 migrants were detained attempting to enter Israel illegally on Thursday.
The group was said to have been making its way across the Egyptian Sinai through the Ahmad Tunnel at Suez.
After their capture, officials said, the group told Egyptian security that they were looking to gain access to Israel for work.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=347013