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- 28 febr 2012
Egypt thwarts attempt to smuggle fuel into Gaza Strip
EL-ARISH (Ma’an) -- Egyptian security forces on Tuesday thwarted an attempt to smuggle large quantities of diesel fuel into the Gaza Strip via underground tunnels, Ma'an's correspondent said.
Egyptian military and police forces stopped four trucks containing more than 7,000 liters of diesel fuel bound for the Gaza Strip.
Four Egyptian smugglers were arrested and are being questioned.
Egypt wants to stop the use of underground tunnels for delivery of Egyptian fuel purchased by Palestinian authorities, and has severely reduced supply through the tunnel network, prompting an energy crisis in the coastal enclave.
Egyptian and Gazan officials reached a deal last week which includes longer-term measures to increase the capacity of Gaza's sole power plant and link Gaza's electricity grid to Egyptian infrastructure.
On Sunday, as part of the first stage of the agreement, Egypt increased its power supply to the Gaza Strip from 17 to 22 megawatts.
The shorter-term requirement is the delivery of fuel into Gaza, but a disagreement on the route of the fuel still appeared to be pending agreement.
The Gaza government is pressing for the Rafah terminal between the countries to be equipped for fuel transfer, and is reluctant to accept fuel to be delivered via the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
The government fears Israel will use control of supplies to squeeze the coastal strip.
Israel severely restricts the movement of people and goods from the Gaza Strip since it tightened a blockade on the territory in 2007.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=463765
4 mar 2012, 21:59 , Respect -
Maria 1 mrt 2012
Freedom and Justice party hopes an office for Hamas would open in Cairo
CAIRO, (PIC)-- Dr. Mohammed Mursi, the leader of the Egyptian Freedom and Justice party, has expressed hopes that an office for Hamas would open in Cairo.
He told the Egyptian daily al-Ahram that opening the office would boost Egypt’s role in Palestinian reconciliation and in supporting Gaza.
He added that this did not mean interfering in Palestinian internal affairs, explaining that Egypt has always been a warm supporter of the Palestine cause.
Mursi hailed the Egyptian stand regarding the Gaza Strip and Hamas after the revolution, pointing to a balance in dealing with the two major Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.
He underlined that opening an office for Hamas does not mean threatening any country or beating the drums for war.
http://fwd4.me/0vbo
4 mar 2012, 21:59 , Respect -
Maria 2 mrt 2012
Egyptian parliament calls for supplying Gaza with electricity and fuel
CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Arab Affairs Committee at the Egyptian Parliament on Thursday recommended making a legal study into the border crossings between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and how to run them in a way that allows entry of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people including supplying them with fuel and electricity if the Israeli occupation continues to refuse to allow humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip.
Jamal Hanafi, head of the committee, said that Egypt must continue to carry out its humanitarian role by providing aid through the Rafah crossing to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
For his part, Baha’ al-Dasouki, deputy Foreign Minister, said that the Gaza Strip is an important dimension of the Egyptian National Security and that Egypt deals with the Strip as a territory under occupation. He added that Egypt continues to put pressure on the international community to shoulder its responsibility and lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
The discussions at the parliament revealed the extent of suffering of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip because of the siege. Suffering that affects every aspect of their lives, no electricity because of lack of fuel and lack of spare parts, medical services are limited again because of lack of supplies and equipment, education is failing as schools destroyed by the Israeli occupation were not built.
http://fwd4.me/0vh8
Haneyya: Power crisis will not force us to make concessions
GAZA, (PIC)-- Ismail Haneyya, the Prime Minister of the government in Gaza, said that the power crisis in Gaza is part of the pressures being exerted in the Gaza government to give concessions, adding that his government will not succumb to blackmail.
Haneyya said during the Friday prayer sermon in one of Gaza’s mosques: “there are parties and forces that do not want the government to continue towards finding a radical solution for the power crisis," pointing to the fact that there are contacts with Arab states and Arab and Islamic personalities to try and find a radical solution to the power crisis.
He stressed that “neither the power crisis nor any other crisis will force the government to make concessions,” calling on those parties to stop putting pressure on Hamas and its government.
He stressed that there were serious efforts in Egypt and other places to put an end to the power crisis in the Gaza Strip, which causes suffering of residents of the Strip and which is an old problem.
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4 mar 2012, 22:00 , Respect -
Maria 3 mrt 2012
Palestinians stage sit-in before Egyptian consulate in Gaza
Gaza, (PIC)-- Dozens of Gazans staged a sit-in before the Egyptian consulate in Gaza on Saturday protesting the continued power crisis in the coastal enclave and urging Cairo to expedite supplying Gaza with necessary fuel to operate the power generation station.
The protestors decried the fact that Egyptian gas was being supplied to Israel while no similar supplies were being channeled to Gaza.
They also denounced the world community’s silence toward the power crisis in Gaza.
For its part, the Ahrar movement in Gaza asked Cairo to stop pursuing the policy of the ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
It warned that the power crisis was heralding big humanitarian problems in Gaza and should be treated as a humanitarian issue away from political bargaining.
The union of health committees in Gaza warned in a press release on Saturday of a health catastrophe in the Strip due to the long hours of power outage.
It said that all health sectors were suffering as a result and pharmacies could not store certain medicines that need certain temperatures.
The union appealed to Egypt and the world community to find an urgent solution to the crisis topped by supplying fuel to Gaza’s electricity station.
http://fwd4.me/0vlB 6 mar 2012, 06:43 , Respect -
Maria 5 mrt 2012
Blast hits Egypt gas pipeline serving Jordan, Israel
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan was bombed on Monday, the 13th such attack since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, witnesses said.
The attack on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile Sinai region occurred in the Massaeed area west of the Mediterranean coastal town of al-Arish, in north Sinai.
Witnesses in al-Arish told Reuters that two blasts were set off within 15 meters of each other using remote-controlled explosive devices.
The bombs were planted by at least six armed men who arrived in two pickup trucks, the witnesses added.
Security in Sinai was relaxed after Mubarak's fall as the police presence thinned out across Egypt.
No group has claimed responsibility for the pipeline attacks.
Egypt's 20-year gas deal with Israel, signed in the Mubarak era, is unpopular with some Egyptians, with critics accusing Israel of not paying enough for the fuel.
Previous explosions sometimes have forced weeks-long shutdowns along the pipeline run by Gasco, a subsidiary of the national gas company EGAS.
Gasco said it had resumed pumping gas to households and industrial factories in al-Arish and began experimental pumping to Jordan and Israel last week.
The pipeline has been shut since an explosion on Feb. 5.
Egypt said in November it would tighten security along the pipeline by installing alarms and recruiting security patrols from Bedouin tribesmen in the area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=465548
Egypt tightens security in and around gas export facilities in Sinai
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Egyptian authorities have tightened security measures in and around gas export facilities in northern Sinai Peninsula to ward off future threats.
Hebrew radio reported on Monday that repair of those facilities has been completed and resuming exports to each of Jordan and Israel was pending green light of security apparatuses that they are well protected and secured.
The broadcast recalled that the gas pipeline was the target of a bomb attack for the 12th time, early last month, in almost one year.
It quoted an unnamed source in the Egyptian ministry of petroleum as saying that security and political officials have affirmed that the facility was well protected against future attacks.
The Egyptian official said that his country would live up to international commitments and would exert all efforts to reduce material losses as a result of the repeated stoppage of gas exports due to those explosions.
http://fwd4.me/0vt9 7 mar 2012, 20:18 , Respect -
Maria 7 mrt 2012
Gaza energy authority: Rafah area ready to receive fuel from Egypt
GAZA, (PIC)-- The authority of energy and natural resources in Gaza said it completed the technical procedures for receiving the fuel supplies through Rafah border area according to the agreement signed the Egyptian side.
Spokesman for the energy authority Ahmed Abul Amrin said everything is technically ready to receive the Egyptian diesel fuel in a location in Rafah area and the authority is waiting for the Egyptian side to fulfill what was agreed upon.
The spokesman, however, said the authorities in Gaza have no idea when the Egyptian side would start to implement the agreement and provide the Gaza power plant with its fuel needs.
He noted that the authority managed to get small amounts of fuel through Rafah underground tunnels that would help it to operate one plant generator.
http://fwd4.me/0vz3
Patients rally outside Egyptian embassy to demand quick solution to power crisis
GAZA, (PIC)-- A number of Palestinian patients from the besieged Gaza Strip appealed to the Egyptian authorities to swiftly supply Gaza power plant with fuel.
This came in a sit-in organized by patients outside the Egyptian embassy in Gaza. The patients carried banners urging Egyptian leaders to end Gaza power crisis.
They hoped that Gaza would be connected with Egypt's regional electric network to alleviate once and for all the suffering of Gaza people especially the patients whose lives in constant risk because of the shortage of fuel supplies used to generate power.
For its part, the health ministry in Gaza urged the Egyptian authorities to hasten to supply the Gaza power plant with its needs of diesel fuel as it promised, warning that the medical situation in Gaza is so difficult that it cannot endure further delay.
It stated in a press release that the aggravating fuel and power crisis threatens the lives of more than 100 premature babies in incubators and hundreds of patients whose lives depend on electric appliances used in intensive care units, dialysis units and operation rooms.
In a related incident, all the Gaza Strip gas stations stopped their fuel services and streets are almost empty of vehicles, while the Egyptian authorities have not allowed any fuel shipments into Gaza for about one month.
This situation is similar to the one that took place in Gaza before Israel's war in 2008 when all aspects of life were paralyzed by the refusal of the former regime in Egypt to provide Gaza with its fuel needs.
http://fwd4.me/0vz2 19 mar 2012, 08:42 , Respect -
Maria 19 mrt 2012
Long power outages cripple daily life in Gaza Strip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcSDQeWfMIo
Power outages and all-out blackouts of up to 18 hours a day have crippled the lives of 1.7 million people residing in the Tel Aviv-blockaded Gaza Strip, Press TV reports.
The long blackouts have been affecting the Israeli-besieged territory’s population for three weeks now, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.
The health sector and public utilities, including water supply and sewage treatment systems, are among the hardest hit by the outages.
The coastal sliver’s sole electricity-generating plant stopped working in late February after Egypt blocked the flow of diesel fuel through underground tunnels into the besieged territory.
Some residents of the strip demonstrated in front of the Rafah crossing to protest against Egypt for blocking the fuel shipments.
Gazans have been struggling with the blackouts under Israel's tight blockade, which has caused a severe decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty in the enclave.
The full-scale land, aerial, and naval siege, which was imposed by Israel on the territory in 2007, has turned the Gaza Strip into the world's largest open-air prison.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232376.html
Hamas extends condolences to Egypt for the death of Shenouda
CAIRO,(pic)-- The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, sent a message of condolences to Egypt and all Christians in the world for the death of Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, expressing its deep appreciation for his solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Hamas Media Office said in a brief statement on Sunday (18-3) " the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, extends Condolences to the Egyptian republic and all Christians in the world for the death of Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. at the age of 89. He was known for his support of Palestine and Jerusalem in the decades-long Middle East conflict. We pray to God to give his family, friends and followers the strength to overcome their loss."
http://fwd4.me/0whA 28 mar 2012, 09:25 , Respect -
Maria 27 mrt 2012
Officials: 2 killed on Israel-Egypt border
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Two people died in a clash late Tuesday in Egyptian territory near Israel's border, a Ma'an correspondent reported and an Israeli security official confirmed.
Egyptian and Israeli security officials said a group of infiltrators was spotted entering Israeli territory and fled back into Egypt, where two people were killed either by smugglers or Egyptian forces.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers identified two infiltrators inside Israeli territory and initiated arrest procedures, but they crossed into Egypt and exchanged fire with Egyptian forces.
Israeli forces were setting up checkpoints on main roads in populated areas, the spokesman said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=471748 30 mar 2012, 09:38 , Respect -
Maria 29 mrt 2012
Israeli Envoys In Cairo To Discuss Spy Release
Egyptian sources reported that senior Israeli government envoys arrived in Cairo, on Wednesday, to hold talks with Egyptian officials on a prisoner-swap deal that would secure the release of a Bedouin Israeli spy in exchange for the release of 63 Egyptian detainees held by Tel Aviv.
The Al-Ahram Egyptian paper reported that senior Egyptian government officials welcomed the Israeli envoys at the Cairo Airport.
Besides the release of the spy, Odah Suleiman Tarabeen, the officials intend to hold talks on the Israeli-Egyptian relations.
Israel is hoping to conclude a swap agreement that would secure the release of Tarabeen in exchange for the release of 63 Egyptian prisoners held by Tel Aviv.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the officials visit to Cairo, but did not comment on the subjects the officials intend to discuss with their Egyptian counterparts.
Tarabeen was arrested by Egypt twelve years ago; he is from a Bedouin tribe in the Sinai and the Negev Desert. His father was recruited to spy for the Israeli military after the 1967 war, and was tasked with spying on Egyptian resistance groups.
In 1990, Suleiman and his family fled to Israel and received its citizenship; he and his family lived in Rahat city since then.
In 1999, Odah Tarabeen went to Sinai to visit his sisters who are married and living in Al-Arish; Egypt told him that he is not welcomed in the country and that we must leave and not come back again. But he infiltrated into Egypt and was caught carrying communication equipment.
He also tried to recruit the husband of his sister living in Al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai and its largest city, in order to be his liaison with the Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad), an Egyptian court found him guilty and sentenced him to 25 years.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63224
Egypt Hands Body Of Arab-Israeli Man To Tel Aviv
Egyptian security sources reported that the Egyptian Authorities handed the body of an Arab man to Tel Aviv after he was shot and killed by Egyptian border police fire on the Israel-Egypt border.
The man is believed to be a smuggler.
The man was identified as Taher Salem Al-Matl, 35; he holds an Israeli citizenship, and his body was handed to the Israeli side on Wednesday evening.
Al-Matl was killed when the Egyptian Border Police noticed three “smugglers” trying to escape from an Israeli Army jeep, and when they ran towards the Egyptian side of the border, the police opened fire at them killing two.
Al-Matl was wearing an Israeli military uniform; the incident took place south of the Al-Oja terminal.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63226 1 apr 2012, 08:47 , Respect -
Maria 1 apr 2012
Report: Egypt refuses to rent building to Israeli embassy
According to London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, Israel's embassy in Cairo has been operating without a permeate residence for the past seven months. Sources told al-Sharq that Israel's ambassador to Cairo has been working out of his hotel room.
An Egyptian security expert claimed Egypt is refusing to sell or rent out a building to Israel.
http://fwd4.me/0xaB 3 apr 2012, 09:46 , Respect -
Maria 2 apr 2012
Haneyya calls on Egypt to restrain Israeli targeting of Palestinian prisoners
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier in Gaza Ismail Haneyya has called on Egypt, in its capacity as the patron of the prisoners’ exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, to pressure Israel into abiding by articles of the deal.
Haneyya, during a visit to liberated prisoner Hana’a Shalabi in Shifa hospital in Gaza on Monday, said that Israel had violated articles of the agreement that banned re-arrest of freed captives in this deal.
He described the deportation of Shalabi to Gaza as a war crime and a violation of human rights, adding that his government would ask Arab and international courts to put an end to such policy.
The premier, shifting to another issue, said that the fuel crisis in Gaza would be resolved within days, pointing to the presence of his deputy in Cairo for that matter.
He hailed in this respect the Qatari donation of 25000 tons of fuel to Gaza, adding that it would suffice the Strip for two months.
http://fwd4.me/0xgZ 10 apr 2012, 10:42 , Respect -
Maria 5 apr 2012
Israeli police: Rocket fired from Sinai hits Eilat
By Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- A rocket fired from Egypt's Sinai desert struck the southern Israeli resort of Eilat on Thursday, police said, fueling Israeli worries over militant activity in the border area.
No casualties or damage were reported.
An Egyptian security source told Reuters in Cairo that Egyptian forces were searching the area along the border but had not found any evidence indicating any rockets had been fired from the Sinai.
The head of Eilat police, Ron Gertner, told Israeli Army Radio that explosions were heard in Eilat soon after midnight. Police found the remains of one rocket in a construction site, about 400 meters from a residential area.
Asked if the rocket was fired from Sinai, Gertner said: "Based on our working assumptions and the range, yes."
Officials in Israel have been worried that the Sinai has become a base for Islamist militants since former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's downfall last year.
"For a long while now we have been seeing that the Sinai peninsula is turning into a launching ground against the citizens of Israel, for terror," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack.
It was launched a day before the start of the Jewish Passover holiday, which commemorates the exodus of the biblical Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Eilat is expected to be full of vacationers during the week-long holiday.
The Israel-Egypt border had been relatively quiet since the two countries signed a peace agreement in 1979. But Israel says that since Mubarak was overthrown, Cairo has lost its grip on the Sinai and militants are exploiting the lawlessness.
Last August, armed infiltrators killed eight Israelis on the Egyptian frontier. Israel's forces, repelling the gunmen, killed five Egyptian border troops.
To fend off infiltration, Israel is building a fence along the southern border which it hopes to complete by the end of 2012. When it is finished, the barrier will run most of the 266 km from Eilat on the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba up to the already-closed Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean.
"We are building a very impressive security fence, but it doesn't block rockets. We will also find a solution to the rocket problem. We will hit those who come to hurt us and we will also hit those who send them," Netanyahu said in a speech in central Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=474102
Egypt: No evidence of Sinai rocket launch
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian officials disputed on Thursday Israeli assessments showing that rockets which struck the city of Eilat were fired from Egypt's Sinai desert.
An Egyptian security official in the southern Sinai, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Egyptian-Israeli border was "intensively secured", and no one had detected a flash of light or sound on Wednesday.
No casualties or damage were reported after the rocket struck the Israeli resort town, police said, but the incident fueled Israeli worries over militant activity in the border area.
An Egyptian security source told Reuters in Cairo that forces were searching the area along the border but had not found any evidence indicating any rockets had been fired from the Sinai.
The head of Eilat police, Ron Gertner, told Israeli Army Radio that explosions were heard in Eilat soon after midnight. Police found the remains of one rocket in a construction site, about 400 meters from a residential area.
Asked if the rocket was fired from Sinai, Gertner said: "Based on our working assumptions and the range, yes."
Officials in Israel have been worried that the Sinai has become a base for Islamist militants since former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's downfall last year.
"For a long while now we have been seeing that the Sinai peninsula is turning into a launching ground against the citizens of Israel, for terror," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack.
It was launched a day before the start of the Jewish Passover holiday, which commemorates the exodus of the biblical Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Eilat is expected to be full of vacationers during the week-long holiday.
The Israel-Egypt border had been relatively quiet since the two countries signed a peace agreement in 1979. But Israel says that since Mubarak was overthrown, Cairo has lost its grip on the Sinai and militants are exploiting the lawlessness.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=474316
...Read more 24 apr 2012, 23:53 , Respect -
Maria 9 apr 2012
Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel, Jordan blasted for 14th time
CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Egyptian gas pipeline in northern Sinai Peninsula supplying natural gas to Israel and Jordan was blasted for the 14th time, since 25 January 2011, at dawn Monday.
Security sources said that the blast targeted a section of the pipeline in northern Sinai near the entrance to El-Arish city.
No party declared responsibility for the attack.
The gas agreement between Egypt and Israel is criticized by the Egyptian public, charging that gas was sold to Israel at a very low price compared to the international prices.
The Egyptian authorities announced in November last year that security measures would be tightened along the gas pipeline including installing alarms and Bedouin patrols.
A responsible source in GASCO that operates the pipeline said that the Egyptian economy suffered one billion Egyptian pounds, around 166 million dollars, in losses as a result of the repeated blasts.
He added that the repeated repairs and replacements of pipelines cost the company around 100 million pounds while the insurance premium was raised to 40 million from 30 million.
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5 jun 2012, 13:20 , Respect -
Maria 24 apr 2012
Resheq welcomes Egypt decision to terminate gas deal with Israel
BEIRUT, (PIC)-- Political bureau member of Hamas Ezzet Al-Resheq has welcomed the Egyptian decision to stop supplying Israel with natural gas.
He said on his Facebook page on Tuesday that the decision fell in line with the Egyptian people’s aspirations and national interests.
Hamas considered the Egyptian decision as the right decision and highlighted Cairo’s support of national causes topped by the Palestine cause, Resheq said.
The Hamas leader said that the statements of extremist Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari demanding the recapture of Sinai Peninsula and saying that Egypt should be dealt with as a terrorist organization and not a sovereign state only reflected the Israeli hysteria following the Egyptian decision.
Resheq said that the honorable Egyptian decision spread hysteria and panic in Israel.
http://fwd4.me/0z9q 5 jun 2012, 17:41 , Respect -
Maria 5 juni 2012
'Israel, threat to Egypt national security'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UudpRphz4R4
Egypt considers the Palestinian issue as one of its domestic issues because Palestine is part of the strategic defense of Egypt, a prominent analyst tells Press TV.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Aly el-Kabbany, political analyst, to further discuss the current Egyptian political climate and its implications for the people of Palestine and Egypt. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: We saw their report onto the hardships suffered in Gaza. How important is foreign policy to the people of Egypt now in these elections?
El-Kabbany: Actually one of the main goals of the Egyptian revolution was to get rid of that old regime of the ousted Hosni Mubarak because of the humiliation he caused Egypt.
The Egyptians all over their history were always supporting their Arab neighbors and since 1948 they were supporting the Palestinian brothers to get their legitimate rights out of this colonial settlement of the Zionist in their land.
And Egyptian people paid blood and money to support their Palestinian brothers so they were really humiliated when they saw Hosni Mubarak became a strategic treasure for the Zionist entity as declared by many of their ministers and the famous saying of the ex-defense minister of Israel when he said that we lost a strategic treasure in Hosni Mubarak.
And it is not only him who was a strategic treasure for them. It is all his regime and the members of that regime. So part of the revolution was to let Egypt become independent again and regain its sovereignty and not become a client state for the Zionist entity and the West.
Press TV: It is said in British politics that foreign policies only ever lose elections because people say we do not want to know, do not go, they stick to what is going to concern Britain.
Is that the same in Egyptian politics or are people now very inflamed about Palestine and about the injustice visited on them so they will cast their vote with that in mind?
El-Kabbany: I agree that domestic issues take priority in any election and in any revolution but the Palestinian issue is one of our domestic issues because Palestine is part of the strategic defense of Egypt.
So once we have Israel there it is a threat to the national security of Egypt and the Egyptians.
So we are helping the Palestinians because they are our brothers but we are helping ourselves because having our enemy on our border and regaining Sinai for example after the surrender treaty of Camp David, we got Sinai back and we lost the sovereignty of Egypt and the independence of Egypt and this is what the Egyptian people launched the revolution [for] to restore their sovereignty and their dignity.
Press TV: We will be coming back very quickly, very soon but to sum it up quickly where are you at now with the Egyptian elections and what pressure is Israel putting on?
El-Kabbany: Again Ahmed Shafiq for example, the two frontrunners, Dr. Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and Shafiq of the old regime, Israel and all the Israeli ministers are saying that if Shafiq comes back it is back to square one and we are back to the normal relations.
That is why my feeling is that Dr. Morsi will have an overwhelming majority in the second round and he will be the coming president of Egypt because I cannot imagine that the Egyptians will vote for the remnant of the old regime.
People were surprised that Safiq won but he got only the votes of the remnants.
Press TV: Just to ask you Aly on the back of that, Palestine the heart of the Muslim world, wouldn’t an Egyptian’s strong stance against Israel in these elections restore national pride and some pro-national pride across the pan-Arab pride?
El-Kabbany: Absolutely, but I just like to disagree with the professor in saying the Arab countries. It is actually the Arab people because the Arab regimes failed Palestine.
If the Arab regimes were listening to their own people, Palestine would have been liberated long time ago. But we had regimes appointed by the West and they are serving the interests of the West and transformed the Arab states into client state to the United States of America.
So the day the Arab people get back their sovereignty in their hands and rule themselves through democratic representatives we will actually in my opinion defeat the propaganda of Israel.
Press TV: Fine but what about that legendary 3 billion dollars in military aid from America every year? If the Muslim Brotherhood does win these elections and that gets cut, there is going to be a lot of unhappy Egyptian people. How can you cope with that?
El-Kabbany: As you exactly said Lauren, these are military subsides to Egypt and they are giving Egypt military arsenal on condition that it is not used against Israel. So we will use it against who, our brothers in Libya or Sudan?
We do not need this military aid if the condition is not to use it against Israel.
So Egypt and the Egyptian economy and the Egyptian people will lose nothing. It might upset the military council in Egypt because they are getting all this military equipment but for me if it is not to be used against the Israeli enemy so they are useless. And Egypt does not have a regional enemy except the Israeli entity.
So really that aid is useless and Egypt does not need it and it will not affect the economy of Egypt.
Press TV: So in that way has been in the US interest to have a police and an army state of course in Egypt keeping those secure ties with Israel imposing that siege?
El-Kabbany: Exactly it is a bribe paid to the Egyptian government to keep this Camp David surrender treaty, enforce and to avoid really the Egyptian army going against Israel and keeping Egypt as a client state to the Americans.
Press TV: And just finally the pipelines explosions that we have been reading about were by oil and I think gas traveling to Israel have been interrupted. Have these been black operations by Israeli intelligence or are they genuine feelings to stop contact?
El-Kabbany: This is genuine feeling by the Egyptian people to stop any trade with the Israeli entity especially this is the wealth of Egypt sold below the market price to the Israelis.
So they tried many times to repair it but they cannot guard it 24 hours and it is a long pipeline so the Egyptian people declared their position towards the Israeli enemy by cutting this supply until the military council themselves they cancelled the treaty and they stopped exporting the oil and gas to Israel.
Because first if they want the gas and oil of Egypt they have to pay the market price but as the West says it is a free trade, if we do not want to sell to them why are we forced to sell to them?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/244294.html