Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources/August 18/13

Ya'alon: Hezbollah is using civilian homes in south Lebanon to hide rocket launchers
Report: Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians Arrested over Links to Dahieh Blast
Hariri to Nasrallah: Your Speech Drags Lebanon Further into Syrian Turmoil
Aoun Rejects Hizbullah's Fighting in Syria: Some Local Powers Obstructed My Visit to Saudi Arabia
Defiant Hezbollah leader says ready to fight in Syria himself
Report: U.N. Security Council Seeking to Take Practical Measures to Protect Lebanon
Army Raids Dahieh Neighborhoods in Search of Rocket Attack Suspects
Gulf Cooperation Council Condemns Dahieh Bombing
Report: Jumblat's Envoy still in Saudi Arabia as Riyadh's Attention Turns to Non-Lebanese Affairs
Army Deploys as Clash Erupts between Bab al-Tabbaneh, Jabal Mohsen
Saudi to Send Three Field Hospitals to Egypt
Egypt Says Brotherhood Welcome to Join Transition
Egyptian Christians fear further sectarian violence as Egypt crisis continues
Syrian rebels kill 11, mainly Christians, in checkpoint attack
Egyptian premier proposes dissolution of Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood's 'Day of Rage' in Egypt erupts into fierce street battles, 64 killed
Thousands Rally for Morsi in Israel
Son of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Chief Killed
Tamarod movement calls on Egyptian government to cancel Camp David peace treaty, stop accepting US aid
Egypt Police End Standoff with Islamists at Al-Fath Mosque in Cairo
Brother of al-Qaida's top leader Ayman al-Zawahri arrested in Egypt
The Dispersal of the Protest Bears Testimony to the Professionalism of the State and the “Haphazardness” of the Muslim Brotherhood
Turkey PM Condemns 'Inaction' on Egypt Crisis
US judge bars Oklahoma from implementing anti-Sharia law
Netanyahu to Ban: Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel is root of conflict
Ban Ki-moon urges Israel, Palestinians to refrain from undermining peace talks
Iran appoints new nuclear program chief 

Ya'alon: Hezbollah is using civilian homes in south Lebanon to hide rocket launchers

By YAAKOV LAPPIN08/16/2013/J.Post/Hezbollah is using civilian homes in southern Lebanon to hide rocket launchers that could fire thousands of projectiles at Israel, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting in Jerusalem on Friday, showing him a map of the area. "We're identifying Hezbollah activity near the border with Israel, despite the fact that UN Resolution 1701 forbids Hezbollah from being there and being active there. Hezbollah must not be there," Ya'alon said, before producing the map."Hezbollah is Iran's principal weapon against Israel for the [future] crucial day," the defense minister added. "This is an organization that is a state within a state." Ya'alon expressed appreciation for the presence of UN peacekeeping forces on the Syrian border and in southern Lebanon."The Middle East is in the midst of a strategic earthquake, and there will be instability in the region for a long time," he said. "The only stable thing in the Middle East is instability." The defense minister said the region would have to be prepared for a Syrian civil war that will likely last for several more years. He noted the growing conflict between Hezbollah and Sunni elements in Lebanon.On Thursday, an explosion tore through the Hezbollah-controlled Dahiye quarter of south Beirut, killing and injuring dozens of people.

Report: Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians Arrested over Links to Dahieh Blast
Naharnet/The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau carried out on Friday night three raids in Beirut to arrest suspects linked to Thursday's Dahieh blast, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Saturday.
It revealed that Lebanese national, Syrians, and Palestinians were arrested in a raid in the Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood without specifying the number of the detainees. The arrests were based on the telephone calls they had made, said al-Rai. Judicial sources later on Saturday told MTV that no suspects have so far been arrested in connection to the attack.Meanwhile, leading security sources from Hizbullah told al-Rai that it was likely that a suicide bomber carried out Thursday's attack given that the crater created by the blast was located in the middle of the road. They added that the explosive used may have exceeded 100 kilograms and included gas and benzene or highly-flammable chemicals seeing as a blaze immediately broke out at the blast site. Sources from the investigation meanwhile told An Nahar daily on Saturday that the explosives were not C4 or TNT, but a more potent substance. They estimated that the bomb weighed about 60 kilograms and created a crater of a depth of 60 centimeters, length of 340, and width of 240.
The Hizbullah sources told al-Rai that it was likely that a nearby conference hall that frequently hosts Hizbullah political and religious events, including a speech by party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who appeared in person at the facility on August 2, was the target of the attack. They suggested that the strict security measures around the hall prevented the attacker from reaching it and he therefore detonated the explosive before arriving there.
In addition, they revealed that the booby-trapped car used in the attack departed to Dahieh from a nearby location. Despite the strict security measures taken in the area, the Hizbullah sources admitted that it would be difficult to prevent future attacks in the region, comparing them to those taking place in Iraq. Moreover, he added that the strict measures may prompt the assailants to target other areas with a heavy Shiite presence, such as the South or the Bekaa, or even those of a dense Christian population in order to force them to leave the country, similar to what took place in Syria and Iraq. At least 21 people were killed and 200 wounded in a car bomb attack in Hizbullah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday. The blast went off on the public road between Bir al-Abed and Ruwais. Later on Thursday, a group calling itself the Brigades of Aisha Umm al-Moemeneen claimed the bombing in a YouTube video and threatened further attacks over Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting in Syria. On July 9, a booby-trapped car exploded at a parking lot in Bir al-Abed, leaving 53 people wounded and causing extensive material damage. In May, two rockets slammed into the Beirut southern suburb of Shiyyah, wounding four people.

Hariri to Nasrallah: Your Speech Drags Lebanon Further into Syrian Turmoil
Naharnet /Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri lashed out on Saturday at Hizbullah chief's Friday speech, accusing him of dragging Lebanon further into the Syrian turmoil. Hariri took to Twitter and slammed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's message as “catastrophic.” “Nasrallah contradicted himself by calling for self-restraint and at the same time announcing his readiness to personally go fight in Syria,” he said.
The former premier continued: "It is good that Nasrallah is enthusiastic to fight terrorism.” "But we don't understand why he drew a red line in (the northern Palestinian camp of) Nahr al-Bared. Wasn't it Takfiri weapons fighting the army then? Hizbullah explains terrorism according to its own interests.” Hariri stated: "If Nasrallah wants to combat terrorism, he should seek the Lebanese people's approval first instead of starting a war in (Syrian President) Bashar Assad's defense.” The head of al-Mustaqbal Party condemned Thursday's “crime” in the southern suburb of Beirut but noted, however, that Hizbullah's war in Syria “is also a crime.”
"What would you do after Assad's regime collapses?” Hariri asked. “Nasrallah is laying the foundations for a tense neighborhood with the new Syria and his speech drags Lebanon further into the Syrian turmoil.””
Hariri reiterated his calls for the state to be “a common ground” for all factions.  “Whenever there is a common collective decision we can really protect Lebanon. The army represents all the Lebanese and the people resist through their army,” he said. "Hizbullah is no longer a resistance when it becomes an entity above state, the army and the people.”In a broadcast speech he gave at a ceremony marking the end of the July 2006 war, Nasrallah announced on Friday that he is “ready to personally go fight in Syria if necessary,” vowing also to double the number of Hizbullah's fighters in the neighboring country as a response to any new attack against the party's stronghold. Nasrallah explained that his combat in Syria is against Takfiris, whom he accused of being behind Thursday's deadly blast in the southern suburb of Beirut. Twenty-four people were killed and more than 325 others wounded on Thursday afternoon in a powerful car bombing that went off between the suburbs of Bir al-Abed and Ruwais. SourceAgence France Presse.

Defiant Hezbollah leader says ready to fight in Syria himself

By REUTERS08/16/2013 20:18
BEIRUT - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused radical Sunni Islamists on Friday of being behind a car bomb that killed 24 people in Beirut and vowed that the attack would redouble his group's commitment to its military campaign in Syria. In a fiery speech to supporters, one day after the deadliest bombing in the capital since Lebanon's civil war ended two decades ago, Nasrallah raised the st
Thursday's blast in the Shi'ite militant Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold followed months of sectarian tension and violence in Lebanon fueled in part by Hezbollah's
Muslim rebels in Syria's civil war. "It is most likely that a takfiri group was responsible for yesterday's explosion," Nasrallah said, referring to radical Sunni Muslim factions linked to al-Qaida, many of whom are fighting with Syrian rebels against President Bashar Assad."If you think by killing our women and children ... and destroying our neighborhoods, we would retreat from the position we took (in Syria) you are wrong," he said in a combative speech broadcast by videolink from a secret location to his supporters. "If we had 100 fighters in Syria, now they will be 200. If we had 1,000, they will be 2,000. If we had 5,000 they will be 10,000. If the battle with these takfiri terrorists requires that I and all Hezbollah should go to Syria, we will go."Thursday's blast came a month after a car bomb wounded 50 people in the same district of the Lebanese capital - an attack that Nasrallah also blamed on takfiris, who consider all but the most radical Sunnis to be infidels whose blood can be spilt. Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said a Syrian man had been arrested for suspected involvement in the July bombing, underlining the extent to which Lebanon has become embroiled in its neighbor's conflict. Lebanese Hezbollah fighters helped Assad's soldiers retake a strategic border town in June, while Sunni Muslims from Lebanon have joined the rebel ranks. The violence has spilled back into Lebanon, with bombings and street clashes in the Bekaa Valley and Mediterranean cities of Tripoli and Sidon.
Possible suicide bombing

Thursday's explosion engulfed a busy street in flames, reviving memories of the destruction inflicted by Lebanon's civil war.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said investigators were checking CCTV footage taken in the moments before the explosion to see whether the van believed to have carried the bomb had been driven by a suicide bomber or detonated remotely. Politicians from across Lebanon's diverse communities, including Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druzes, united to condemn the bloodshed in the Shi'ite neighborhood, some visiting the area to offer condolences. But in a sign of how the Syrian crisis has polarized Lebanon, there was celebratory gunfire in the mainly Sunni city of Tripoli on Thursday night and reports of people distributing sweets.
In an effort to limit sectarian tensions, Nasrallah called on Shi'ites to show restraint and said that takfiri groups were a threat to Sunnis and Shi'ites alike.
"These people kill Sunnis just as they kill the Shi'ites and they send suicide bombers to Sunni mosques just as they send them to Shi'ite mosques," he said, referring to al-Qaida-linked groups in Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia.
Speaking in an address to mark the seventh anniversary of the end of Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel, Nasrallah also said he could not exclude that those radical Islamists were actually working for Israeli interests.
Commenting on the incident last week in which four IDF soldiers were injured on the Lebanese border, Nasrallah, whose organization claimed credit for the explosions, vowed that any Israeli soldier who will try to enter Lebanese territory will lose his legs. "The era of Israeli tourism on the Lebanese border has ended forever, we are stronger than ever," he said, according to Army Radio

Aoun Rejects Hizbullah's Fighting in Syria: Some Local Powers Obstructed My Visit to Saudi Arabia
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated that Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting in Syria was an “individual initiative” that the party undertook, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday. He told the daily: “We oppose intervention outside Lebanese territories and no understanding was reached between us and the party over this issue.”“The resistance's involvement in Syria is part of an understanding between the party and the Syrians,” he added. “The situation in Syria is very dangerous and we want democracy to prevail there, but at the same time, we fear the rise of groups, like the Nusra Front, whose ascension to power will have a negative effect on Lebanon,” he said. “Any impact on Lebanon will not only affect Christians, but Sunnis and Shiites, meaning all Lebanese people,” he stressed. “We are trying to steer Lebanon away from conflict and we have so far succeeded thanks to the will of foreign countries that managed to influence local sentiments,” Aoun stated. Commenting on efforts to form a new government, Aoun said: “I think we are capable of building a state in Lebanon without waiting for the end of the crisis inn Syria.”Asked about his ties with Saudi Arabia, the MP replied: “There are no fundamental obstacles in our relationship, but some Lebanese political powers made it appear as if I oppose the kingdom.”“Saudi Arabia helps maintain Lebanon's stability and it strengthens its army,” he noted. The FPM leader revealed that he was seeking to visit Saudi Arabia in 2006, but it was delayed.
He accused some sides, that he chose to leave unnamed, of intervening in his efforts to head to the kingdom until it was postponed “and the invitation disappeared.” He added that former Premier Saad Hariri was among his main opponents, saying that a number of officials tried to mediate to allow his travel to Saudi Arabia, but they failed. On his ties with Hariri, he commented: “We had our differences in the past, but they were resolved when we resigned from his cabinet” in 2011. “Lebanon is his home and he is a political leader with his political weight,” he remarked. Asked if he would accept traveling to Saudi Arabia even if his allies opposed it, he responded: “My acceptance of the invitation is the main factor.”“My freedom has not died yet and we have an understanding, not an alliance” with local powers, he explained.

Ban Ki-moon urges Israel, Palestinians to refrain from undermining peace talks
By YAAKOV LAPPIN 08/16/2013/Hezbollah is using civilian homes in southern Lebanon to hide rocket launchers that could fire thousands of projectiles at Israel, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting in Jerusalem on Friday, showing him a map of the area. "We're identifying Hezbollah activity near the border with Israel, despite the fact that UN Resolution 1701 forbids Hezbollah from being there and being active there. Hezbollah must not be there," Ya'alon said, before producing the map. Hezbollah is Iran's principal weapon against Israel for the [future] crucial day," the defense minister added. "This is an organization that is a state within a state." Ya'alon expressed appreciation for the presence of UN peacekeeping forces on the Syrian border and in southern Lebanon."The Middle East is in the midst of a strategic earthquake, and there will be instability in the region for a long time," he said. "The only stable thing in the Middle East is instability." The defense minister said the region would have to be prepared for a Syrian civil war that will likely last for several more years. He noted the growing conflict between Hezbollah and Sunni elements in Lebanon.  On Thursday, an explosion tore through the Hezbollah-controlled Dahiye quarter of south Beirut, killing and injuring dozens of people.

Egyptian Christians fear further sectarian violence as Egypt crisis continues
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Egyptian Christians fear that sectarian violence that will escalate in the coming days, after several churches and property owned by Christian citizens were targeted during bloody clashes across Egypt this week. Egypt has witnessed sectarian violence against Christians in the past, and many say the recent attacks echo the bloody sectarian strife that climaxed in Egypt in the 1990s. The recent wave of sectarian violence swept through the country after security forces attempted to disperse two Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins being held in protest against the ouster of the Islamist former president Mohamed Mursi by the Egyptian military in early July.
Asharq Al-Awsat spoke with Munir Naguib, a Christian lawyer from Cairo, who said: “Radical groups have targeted around 52 Christian facilities, including churches, monasteries and service centers, in more than nine Egyptian provinces since last Wednesday.” The way events happened “indicates that they were not random,” Naguib said, adding, “Armed protests cannot take place in more than 40 locations across the cities and villages of Egypt at the same time without being arranged in advance. . . . This is impossible and not believable.” When the two Brotherhood camps were dispersed earlier this week, radical Islamist protesters attacked state facilities and private property along with churches in several provinces. It was reported that churches were either stormed or set ablaze in Sohag, Minya, Beni Suef, Fayium, Asyut, Alexandria, Suez and Cairo.
Marian George, a Christian human rights activist, told Asharq Al-Awsat that several attacks against Christian properties have been documented.
“Several Coptic shops and properties were intentionally targeted, particularly in Upper Egypt,” she said. “I saw a protest by bearded gunmen who stormed and threw patrol bombs at stores and pharmacies in Minya only because they had Christian names on their shopfronts,” she added. Nevertheless, the activist emphasized that “our Muslim neighbors are protecting our houses as much as they can.”A Christian activist group that calls itself the Maspero Youth Federation announced that it had documented 63 attacks against Christian facilities, including churches, Coptic schools, houses, hotels and vehicles. The group said in a statement that “the Muslim Brotherhood’s criminal and terrorist activities against the great Egyptians continue to grow day by day, particularly against the Copts.” Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered the army’s engineering authority to reconstruct all churches that have been damaged in recent attacks as quickly as possible, with all expenses to be paid by the armed forces. Coptic Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria has supported the ouster of the Islamist former president Mohamed Mursi. Together with Ahmed El-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Tawadros II appeared next to Sisi when the latter read a statement announcing the removal of Mursi on July 3.

Syrian rebels kill 11, mainly Christians, in checkpoint attack
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels killed at least 11 people, including civilians, in an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of Homs on Saturday that official state media described as a massacre. Most of those killed were Christians, activists and residents said. Some were from the National Defense Army, a militia which fights alongside President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers, and others were civilians, they said. "Terrorists today committed a massacre, killing 11 people ... in Homs countryside," the state news agency SANA quoted an official as saying. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel gunmen had attacked the checkpoint, killing five militia fighters and six civilians, including two women. It said the rebel fighters had also sustained losses. A resident who visited the site of the overnight attack said he saw the remains of a destroyed checkpoint and two civilian cars nearby, whose passengers may have been caught up by chance in the fighting. He said the checkpoint had been used as an artillery base to bombard the rebel town of Hosn, about 2 km (1 mile) away, which lies below the towering Crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers. Many Christians fleeing the violence in Homs city over the past two years have settled in the Christian villages around the area where Saturday's attack took place.
Some have joined the pro-Assad forces, fearing for their future were the president to be toppled by rebel forces increasingly led by radical Islamist brigades, some with links to al Qaeda. More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which grew out of a 2011 uprising against 40 years of dynastic rule by the Assad family, and nearly 2 million more have fled the country as refugees.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alison Williams)

Egyptian premier proposes dissolution of Muslim Brotherhood
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi has proposed the legal dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood and the government is studying the idea, a government spokesman said.
According to the health ministry, 173 people died on Friday in violence that erupted when security forces cracked down on Islamists protesting against the army's removal of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi last month. Beblawi had made the proposal to the minister of social affairs - the ministry responsible for licensing non-governmental organizations, spokesman Sherif Shawky said. "It is being studied currently," he said.
The Brotherhood was dissolved by Egypt's military rulers in 1954, but registered itself as a non-governmental organization in March in a response to a court case brought by opponents of the group who were contesting its legality. The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, also has a legally registered political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, which was set up in 2011 after the uprising that led to the downfall of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
"Reconciliation is there for those who hands are not sullied with blood," Shawky said.(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Louise Ireland and David Stamp)

Muslim Brotherhood's 'Day of Rage' in Egypt erupts into fierce street battles, 64 killed
By Aya Batrawy And Tony G. Gabriel, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press –
CAIRO - Egypt's capital descended into chaos Friday as vigilantes at neighbourhood checkpoints battled Muslim Brotherhood-led protesters denouncing the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi and a deadly crackdown. The fiercest street clashes the city has seen in more than two years of turmoil left more than 60 people dead, including several policemen. The sight of residents firing at one another marked a dark turn in the conflict, as civilians armed with pistols and assault rifle clashed with protesters taking part in what the Muslim Brotherhood called a "Day of Rage," ignited by anger at security forces for clearing two sit-in demonstrations Wednesday in clashes that killed more than 600 people. Military helicopters circled overhead as residents furious with the Brotherhood protests pelted them with rocks and glass bottles. The two sides also fired on one another, sparking running street battles throughout the capital's residential neighbourhoods. There was little hope that an evening curfew would curb the violence as the Muslim Brotherhood called on supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, to stage daily protests. Unlike in past clashes between protesters and police, residents and possibly police in civilian clothing battled those participating in the Brotherhood-led marches. There were few police in uniform to be seen as neighbourhood watchdogs and pro-Morsi protesters fired at one another for hours on a bridge that crosses over Cairo's Zamalek district, an upscale island neighbourhood where many foreigners and ambassadors reside. Across the country, at least 56 civilians were killed, along with eight police officers, security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The violence erupted shortly after midday weekly prayers when tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters answered the group's call to protest across Egypt in defiance of a military-imposed state of emergency following the bloodshed earlier this week.
Armed civilians manned impromptu checkpoints throughout the capital, banning Brotherhood marches from approaching and frisking anyone wanting to pass through. At one checkpoint, residents barred ambulances and cars carrying wounded from Cairo's main battleground, Ramses Square, from reaching a hospital. The scenes highlighted how dangerous the divisions in Egypt have become. At least nine police stations were attacked Friday, officials said. Egypt's police force was rocked by the country's 2011 uprising that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak from power and has not fully recovered since.
On Thursday, the Interior Ministry said it had authorized the use of deadly force against anyone targeting police and state institutions. But the threat appeared not to intimidate protesters.
The Brotherhood-led marches in Cairo headed toward Ramses Square, near the country's main train station. The area is near Tahrir Square, where the army put up barbed wire and deployed 30 tanks outside the Cairo Museum overlooking the square as a buffer between the protesters and a small anti-Brotherhood encampment in the square. Several of the protesters were seen writing their names and relatives' phone numbers on one another's chests and undershirts in case they were to die in Friday's clashes. Tawfik Dessouki, a Brotherhood supporter, said he was ready to fight for "democracy" and against the military's ouster of Morsi.
"I am here for the blood of the people who died. We didn't have a revolution to go back to a police and military state again and to be killed by the state," he said during a march headed toward Ramses Square.
At least 12 people were killed near the square after police fired on protesters. Some appeared to be trying to attack a nearby police station, security officials said. Inside Al-Fath mosque near Ramses Square, where the Brotherhood urged its Cairo supporters to converge, blood-soaked bodies with bullets to the head and chest lay next to one another.
Associated Press photographers saw many of the dead inside the mosque-turned-morgue, which was also acting as a field hospital where the wounded were being wheeled in on wooden crates. One corpse had a name and phone number scribbled on the chest. The upper floors of a commercial building towering over Ramses Square caught fire later in the day, with flames engulfing it for hours. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire at the building housing the Arab Contractors' construction company, but no injuries were reported.
Similar scenes played out in Egypt's second-largest city of Alexandria, where at least 10 people were killed in clashes between protesters and their rivals, according to a security official. Violence was also fierce in the province of Fayoum, just west of Cairo, where 11 people died during an attempt to storm the main security building there.
Fighting also broke out in at least five other provinces. In the southern province of Minya, two churches were attacked by protesters, security officials said. At churches across the country, residents formed human chains to protect them from further assaults, and a civilian was killed while trying to protect a church in Sohag, south of Cairo, authorities said.
Many of Morsi's supporters have voiced criticism at Egypt's Christian minority for largely supporting the military's decision to oust him from office, and dozens of churches have been attacked this week.
Also Friday, security officials said assailants detonated explosives on train tracks between Alexandria and the western Mediterranean Sea province of Marsa Matrouh. There were no injuries and no trains were damaged, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, has been in turmoil since Morsi was removed from power by the military on July 3, following days of mass protests against him and his Brotherhood group. But Morsi's supporters have remained defiant, demanding the coup be overturned. The international community has urged both sides to show restraint and end the turmoil engulfing the nation.
On Wednesday, riot police backed by armoured vehicles and bulldozers cleared two sprawling encampments of Morsi supporters, sparking clashes that killed at least 638 people. Some 40 police officers also were killed.
The Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, said in a statement Friday that the group is not backing down.
"The struggle to overthrow this illegitimate regime is an obligation, an Islamic, national, moral and human obligation which we will not steer away from until justice and freedom prevail, and until repression is conquered," the statement said.The group also asserted that its protests were peaceful. The revolutionary and liberal groups that helped topple Morsi have largely stayed away from street rallies in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, state-run and private television stations have been broadcasting footage from Wednesday's violence they say shows armed men firing toward security forces. Graphic videos have emerged online portraying the violence from the vantage point of the protesters. One video, authenticated by The Associated Press based on landmarks and reporting from Wednesday's crackdown, shows armoured personnel carriers driving protesters back from an area near the main sit-in as continuous volleys of automatic gunfire rang out. In the footage, the crowd was shown retreating after throwing stones at the approaching vehicles, leaving several bloodied men motionless on the ground. After a loudspeaker announcement instructed the crowd to evacuate, promising safe passage, a vehicle approached and the barrel of a weapon emerged from one of its gun ports.
Associated Press writer Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

Brother of al-Qaida's top leader Ayman al-Zawahri arrested in Egypt
By Maggie Michael, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – CAIRO - Egyptian authorities have arrested the brother of al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri, a security official said Saturday. He said Mohammed al-Zawahri, leader of the ultraconservative Jihadi Salafist group, was detained at a checkpoint in Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo. Mohammed al-Zawahri's group espouses a hard-line ideology but was not clandestine prior to Egypt's July 3 coup. He was allied with ousted President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist, whose supporters are now taking to the streets to protest the killings of its supporters in a security crackdown last week. The official declined to give further details. He spoke anonymously as he was not authorized to talk to the press. Authorities said earlier that al-Zawahri had commanded insurgents in Sinai Peninsula.
Street fighting in Cairo and other clashes across the country left 173 people dead on Friday, authorities say. An anti-military coalition led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has called for a week of protests, further escalating unrest in the country. The coalition says that they won't back down until it topples the government installed by the military. Clashes continued Saturday morning near a downtown Cairo mosque, where hundreds of Morsi's supporters remained after barricading themselves inside overnight.

Opinion: Conspiracy theories surround Turkish pilots’ kidnapping /Asharq Alawsat
Zuwwar Imam Ali Al-Reda—a counterfeit organization—has claimed responsibility for the abduction of two Turkish Airline pilots. The group said the two Turkish nationals would remain in custody until Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Azaz are released. The Turkish government advised its citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to Lebanon and called on its nationals to leave the country. Turkey also stepped up security measures near the headquarters of the Turkish forces operating in southern Lebanon. Most of the Arab and international forces deployed in Lebanon to protect the country’s unity, independence and sovereignty were forced to leave overnight under circumstances different from those that had led to their intervention. Turkey is also withdrawing from Lebanon, although the decision to withdraw forces was made weeks before the abduction.
Zuwwar Imam Ali Al-Reda decided that Ankara should pay a price, although it remains unknown whether the abduction was related to Azaz or not.
The Turkish government will not fall into the trap of accusing Hezbollah of the abduction. According to the Lebanese–Armenian MP Jean Ogassapian, the kidnapping took place in a Hezbollah-dominated area. Another MP, Atef Majdalani, emphasized that nothing can happen in the area without Hezbollah’s knowledge.
We will ignore reports that families of the pilgrims kidnapped in Azaz pressured Hezbollah to retaliate. We will not be provoked by reports of people in Bir Al-Abed setting off fireworks in celebration of the abduction of the Turkish pilots. This is not to mention that some Lebanese journalists rushed to justify the abduction by placing complete responsibility on the Justice and Development Party (JDP) and Erdoğan.
Sheikh Abbas Zogheib, who was tasked by the Higher Shi’ite Council to follow up on the issue of the kidnapped pilgrims, blamed the Turkish government on several occasions and held it responsible for potential reactions and what might happen in the future. These reactions include kidnapping Turkish nationals in Lebanon, especially since—according to Zogheib—the families of the kidnapped pilgrims have a legitimate right to damage Turkey’s interests. Moreover, following the announcement of the abduction, Zogheib openly called on “honorable Lebanese” to side with the kidnappers.
Daniel Shueib, who is described as the spokesman for the families of the kidnapped pilgrims, could not wait to thank the kidnappers and was quoted by the National News Agency (NNA) as saying, “May God bless them.”
Some state institutions in Lebanon not only watch the events unfold, but also attempt to add fuel to fire.
We in Ankara have to take steps before some Lebanese media outlets construct new scenarios.
According to one theory, Tehran encouraged the abduction to do Erdoğan’s government a “humanitarian favor,” in repayment for Ankara’s important role in the release of dozens of Iranian citizens who were kidnapped by Syrian rebels a year ago. Another theory claims that by abducting the two Turkish pilots, the Egyptian intelligence wanted to direct a blow against the Turkish government for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood.
All of these defiant attitudes is remarkable indeed, but we must turn a blind eye for the sake of preserving what has already been built in Lebanon.
Turkey is paying the price of its policy towards Syria, but through Lebanon. It is also paying the price for enhancing its political and commercial ties with Lebanon over the last few years. It is paying the price for waiving visa requirements for Lebanese nationals who, before anybody else, fully realize the significance of this step, and for its openness to a wide segment of the Lebanese society, angering Iran and its allies in Lebanon.
This Syrian–Lebanese issue has been transformed into a crisis between some Lebanese people and Turkey. The issue is more than Azaz. Those involved are using the abduction to politically defeat the Turkish government. Turkey then was in the process of reaching a solution for the issue of Azaz, in cooperation with the Lebanese government.
Reports from Turkey claimed that the Syrian government had commissioned Hezbollah to do the kidnapping in retaliation for the setbacks Assad’s forces have recently suffered in Aleppo and on the Syrian coast. This is not to mention that the rebels are approaching the town of Qardaha, where Assad’s family come from.
Other Turkish writers indicated that Turkey should persuade Iran to urge Hezbollah to move towards releasing the pilots.
The issue is no longer about abducting Turkish nationals or releasing Lebanese pilgrims held in Azaz. Otherwise, Hezbollah would not have to open the door for its fighters to fight inside Syria alongside Assad’s forces.
I wonder if Hezbollah acts on its own, without cooperating with Iran.

Egypt Police End Standoff with Islamists at Al-Fath Mosque in Cairo
Naharnet /Egyptian police cleared Islamist protesters from a Cairo mosque on Saturday after a standoff that included exchanges of fire, as the death toll from four days of violence surpassed 750.
Security forces dragged supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsi from the Al-Fath mosque, passing through angry crowds who tried to beat the Islamists, calling them "terrorists".
The clashes came as the government said 173 people had been killed in the past 24 hours alone, bring the country's death toll to more than 750 since Wednesday, when police cleared two camps of Morsi loyalists in the capital. According to an Agence France Presse tally, at least 1,042 people have been killed since June 26, when Morsi supporters began protesting before mass demonstrations against the Islamist leader that prompted the military to end his single year of turbulent rule on July 3. International criticism of the bloodshed mounted, with Germany and Qatar jointly condemning "the ongoing and brutal violence".
The standoff at Al-Fath mosque in central Ramses Square began on Friday, with security forces surrounding the building where Islamists were sheltering and trying to convince them to leave.
The Islamists had lined up the bodies of dozens of protesters who had been killed on Friday inside the mosque-turned-morgue.
By Saturday afternoon, the situation turned violent, with an AFP reporter on the scene saying gunmen inside the mosque were trading fire with police outside.
Police eventually dragged people from inside the mosque, firing in the air to hold back residents of the area who tried to attack the Islamists with sticks and iron bars. Both outside the mosque and in several other parts of Cairo, residents targeted those suspected of being Islamists, often for no more than wearing a beard or a veil. On Friday, Morsi supporters had announced "Friday of anger" demonstrations, which quickly turned violent, with gunshots ringing out in Cairo.
The government said those clashes killed least 173 people across the country, including 95 in the capital and 25 in Alexandria. Among those killed on Friday was a son of Mohammed Badie, chief of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
The Anti-Coup Alliance of Morsi supporters announced it would end the protests shortly after a night-time curfew came into effect, but pledged daily demonstrations going forward. It was not clear whether that call had been heeded, with no reports of demonstrations in Cairo on Saturday. The interior ministry said it had arrested 1,004 Brotherhood "elements", and on Saturday security sources said the brother of al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri had been detained.
Security sources also said one soldier was killed in northern Sinai where militants have launched daily attacks against security forces.
Egypt's interim army-backed government has defended its actions, with presidential adviser Mustafa Hegazy saying the country's forces had acted with "a huge amount of self-restraint and self-control".
The cabinet has also insisted the security services were acting to confront a "terrorist plot".
But international criticism continued to pour in on Saturday, with Germany's foreign minister and his Qatari counterpart condemning the spiraling violence after a meeting.
"We are deeply distressed by the ongoing and brutal violence in Egypt," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said, urging dialogue.
"Otherwise there is great danger that more blood will spill... which indicates the danger of civil war," he said.
EU leaders have pledged a strong response to the violence, which EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has described as "shocking".
In Turkey, which backs Morsi, thousands marched in Istanbul against his ouster, and the Vatican said Pope Francis was following events with "mounting concern".
He was praying for the rival sides to "choose the path of dialogue and reconciliation," the Vatican said.
The United States has announced the cancellation of its biannual military exercise with Egypt, but stopped short of suspending $1.3 billion in annual aid.
On Saturday, the US embassy said it would not open its doors on Sunday, a working day in Egypt, saying the "possibility of protests in vicinity of the embassy continues".
Anti-American sentiment has risen in Egypt with Washington's criticism of the crackdown.
But the international response has been not uniformly critical. Saudi Arabia and Jordan said they backed Egypt's fight against "terrorism".
In neighboring Libya, meanwhile, an explosive device went off in front of the Egyptian consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, causing damage but no casualties, a security official said.
SourceAgence France Presse.

Tamarod movement calls on Egyptian government to cancel Camp David peace treaty, stop accepting US aid

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS08/17/2013 The Tamarod ("Rebellion") movement in Egypt has joined a campaign calling to stop US aid to Egypt, and to cancel the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel, Daily News Egypt reported on Saturday.
The campaign is in response to "unacceptable" US interference in Egyptian political affairs, after US President Barack Obama decided to cancel a joint drill with the Egyptian military in response to the outbreak of violence in the country earlier this week.While the bi-annual joint army exercise was cancelled, the US stopped short of canceling its annual $1.3 billion aid to Egypt. Tamarod, who played a major role in the ousting of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, demand the Egyptian regime to hold a referendum on banning US aid, cancel the peace agreement with Israel, and reword security-related treaties to allow Egypt to revive its national sovereignty. The movement claims that Israeli and international peacekeeping forces in Sinai prevent the Egyptian military from sending more forces to the peninsula to stop terrorist activity in the area.
Daily News Egypt quotes the movement's media coordinator Mai Wahba as saying the campaign will collect signatures from people, and that there was no timetable for the campaign yet.
The "No to US aid" campaign has already gathered 300,000 signatures. Israel has opted to stay silent on the turmoil in Egypt to avoid disrupting strategic security cooperation with the Egyptian military.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had aides instruct cabinet ministers to avoid public comment about Egypt, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Israel and the United States see the situation in Egypt very, very differently and justifiably the prime minister wouldn't want Israeli cabinet ministers to publicly criticize American policy," Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser, said on Channel 2.
In private, one senior Israeli official expressed alarm at US President Barack Obama's condemnation of the bloodshed in Egypt and cancellation of a joint military exercise with Cairo."Eyebrows have been raised," the official said.
Israel worries that any sign of wavering US support for Egypt's military may embolden Islamist militants sympathetic with the Muslim Brotherhood, ousted by the Egyptian army after a year in power.
Eiland backed the crackdown by Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the Brotherhood this week. "Sisi in the situation he faced, had no choice but to do what he did," said Eiland, adding he thought Western outrage at the scale of the bloodshed was understandable. Almost 800 people have been killed so far. Israel wants to avoid any disruption of its security cooperation with Egypt, which stems from the 1979 peace treaty - the first of only two such accords between Israel and Arab countries.
Military ties with Egypt have helped Israel strategically in a region where it is otherwise largely isolated, as well as rein in weapons smuggling to Palestinian militants in Gaza, which is ruled by Islamist group Hamas.
That cooperation has remained intact despite turmoil since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011. Both sides are anxious to curb growing lawlessness in Sinai and Eiland said intelligence officials continued to work together to curb attacks from Sinai.
Israel says rocket strikes on towns across its southern border have increased from Sinai. The Iron Dome missile-defense system shot down a rocket fired at the resort of Eilat earlier this week.
Magles Shoura al-Mujahideen, a hardline Islamist group, said it carried out the attack in retaliation for the deaths of four militants in an airstrike in Sinai a week ago. Israel denies any role in that attack.
Eiland did not rule out "a one-off Israeli action" to take out a rocket launcher if Egypt were unable to prevent an attack in time, but thought Israel could rely on Egypt's military.
 

Egypt, Syria, Russia and Saudi Arabia
Walid Choucair/Al Hayat
The countries of the Arab Spring are experiencing a re-shuffling of the deck, which requires us to monitor the impact of new developments on the stances of the Great Powers and other foreign powers, which are in conflict with one another vis-à-vis these changes. We should also monitor the changes in the calculations of these influential countries, especially when it comes to Syria.
There is the violent confrontation in Egypt pitting the army, supported by liberal, nationalist, youth and religious groups, including some Islamists, against the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, there is a political struggle which has seen bloodshed and assassinations in Tunisia, between the Nahda movement (the Tunisian version of the Brotherhood) and various secular, leftist, liberal and moderate Islamist groups. These developments are at the heart of the re-shuffling of the deck that the region is witnessing.
If what is transpiring in the region – taking the developments in Egypt and Tunisia along with what is happening in Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Lebanon – can be termed chaos, the most important thing revealed by this chaos has been the confusion in the stances of the Great Powers, including Russia.
The United States is setting a condition on the Syrian opposition – it must confront the extremist Islamist forces in the country, especially the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, for it to receive support in the form of weapons. Meanwhile, the US has been trying – since before the Egyptian police and Army broke up the Brotherhood's street sit-in – to broker a reconciliation between this group and the 30 July popular uprising. In doing so, it was ignoring the acts of the Brotherhood, which aborted the rise of a pluralist order in Egypt. The US sympathized with the Brotherhood when the protests were broken up, ignoring both its role in inciting violence and the million-person popular demonstrations against the Brotherhood's usurpation of power.
Meanwhile, Russia is allowing the Syrian regime to pursue tactics that Moscow has mastered, such as turning over some areas to hardline Islamists a few months ago (Nusra and ISIS), in the province of Raqqa. This was in order to spark a struggle between these two groups and the rebel Free Syrian Army, as well as with the Kurdish forces in the country's northeast. Moscow looked on, even though its chief excuse in supporting the Syrian regime is its concern about the control over Syria by hardline Islamists and terrorists, if the regime falls. In Egypt, Moscow ignores the regime's repression of the Brotherhood for the sole reason that Washington has been critical of the crackdown.
The Great Powers are dealing with conditions in each Arab country in localized fashion, based on what their interests require, even if this exposes the absence of harmony in their policies from one place to the next.
It is not hugely creative to say that the Great Powers are surprised each time by the developments in these countries and by the events produced by the dynamism of Arab movements. These Great Powers alter or change their stances based on the changes in the balance of power. This once again proves that the making of events in the Arab Spring takes place as a result of local social movements, and that eternal forces seek to adapt to them. As long as they cannot directly intervene to manage affairs in this or that country, they seek to adjust their policies to the new developments.
In April, when Russian President Vladimir Putin met with John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow, the two sides agreed to the Geneva 2 conference on a political solution the following month. The conference continues to be postponed from one month to another, until Lavrov last Friday expressed his hope that it would convene in October. Moscow was wagering that the regime would make military progress, such as the occupation by regime forces and Hezbollah of the city of Qusair. It was later proved that this progress did not mean that the regime would be able to cement its victories, as it suffered defeats in other regions.
One of the ironies about the impact that the balance of power on the ground has on the stances of other countries is that while US-Saudi relations are seeing disputes and differences over events in Egypt, and the option of providing qualitative arms to the Syrian opposition, Russian-Saudi relations are characterized by tension. This is because Russia is vetoing any United Nations Security Council resolution that is tough on the regime of Bashar Assad. There have been attempts to revive previous understandings, which were raised between the two sides in 2008, in talks a few weeks ago. These discussions took up the future of Syria and the possibility of arriving at a political settlement over the country, one that would end with Assad's departure. This openness between Russia and Saudi Arabia represents a limited breakthrough, which establishes the beginning of serious dialogue – if this is the case, the two countries are bound, during the current circumstances, to confront a common rival, namely Islamic extremism. Moscow fears that this hardline Islamist current will have an impact on the Republic of Chechnya in the Russian Federation. It is most likely that the progress of Islamic extremism depends on the situation on the ground in Syria, in parallel to what finally stabilizes in Egypt.
Thus, Moscow is moving toward reducing the repercussions of its disputes over the Syria crisis with all other countries, including Europe, on its relations with these countries.

The Dispersal of the Protest Bears Testimony to the Professionalism of the State and the “Haphazardness” of the Muslim Brotherhood
Raghida Dergham/Al Hayat
Friday 16 August 2013
Many legendary Arab statesmen have fallen over the past few years – having been hanged or mutilated, or fled or been imprisoned. Yet the lesson remains lost on old and new Arab statesmen, from Egypt to Syria, to Iraq and Lebanon. Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his supporters from the Muslim Brotherhood are in a complete state of denial of what is a clear reality, namely, that there will be no turning back from the overthrow of Morsi and the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood – in a mixture of secular momentum rejecting the imposition of religion on the state, and of the Muslim Brotherhood’s surprising failure at the exercise of power and its betrayal of democratic principles. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resembles the Muslim Brotherhood he is fighting in Syria, as they both shed blood as part of their battle for power. He too is in denial of the reality that it is impossible for Syria to return to be ruled by the Baath Party and the Assad family as it once had been, regardless of how many battles Iran and Hezbollah might win him in the balance of power, and of the major assistance he might obtain from Russia and China, whether in the form of ammunition or drones. Indeed, neither is Mohamed Morsi willing to admit that there is no way for him to be reinstated, even as he uses elections, his term, and his “legitimacy” as pretexts, establishing himself as a new model of the old and customary leaders, and an example of debasing the goals of the revolution of change in Egypt; nor is Bashar al-Assad willing to relinquish power, no matter the cost in terms of Syrian lives or the division of Syria, at least for another nine months, even as he uses as a pretext the necessity of completing his “legitimate” term, while insisting on his right to run again as candidate to the presidency if he so wishes. America’s war in Iraq brought Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki to power, welcoming a democracy that had replaced the authoritarianism of deposed President Saddam Hussein and of the Baath Party. And here is Maliki now, strutting like a peacock in the narcissism of power and seeking after a third term in office, blatantly ignoring popular protests and what his clinging to power will lead to in terms of bloodshed and perhaps of dividing the country. In Lebanon, Hezbollah has failed at governing through a government loyal to it and in which it holds the majority. It now insists on thwarting the formation of a new government cabinet, so that it may keep holding power by purposely creating a vacuum that will cripple the country. This has led to a qualitatively new wave among the remaining two-thirds of the Lebanese, based on the willingness to secede rather than submit to the dictates of the one-third in whose name Hezbollah claims to speak, and whose political rights it claims to be entitled to defend with weapons and by means of protest. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, has used protests as a means to take the country hostage, rather than for reform. This was not a protest of civilians, but rather an armed protest with women and children brought in and prominently positioned to attract cameras and shackle government forces in order to prevent them from dispersing it. What happened at the protest in Egypt – and in Lebanon – was sedition and a security threat aimed at imposing hegemony on public decision-making by force and coercion, not at reforming a flawed situation to participate in decision-making through dialogue.
In Lebanon, the protest led to taking the state hostage, and this in turn led to a vicious circle of poisonous vacuum that has sowed the seeds of doubt and fear… And today, it is sowing the seeds of weariness from fear mongering, dictates, and hostage taking, to be replaced with the willingness to secede on a background of difficulties hindering coexistence. Thus, obsession with power has become a means to potentially divide the country, and has in fact resulted in new reactions that boil down to “so be it.” If Hezbollah fulfills its threats and its hints to resort to making use of its weapons against the Lebanese, as took place on May 7 a few years ago, then so be it. If secession or division into confederacies is the answer to avoid coercion, fear mongering, and dictates, then so be it. So be it, because we are sick and tired of being taken hostage. So be it, because enough is enough.
Egypt is a different matter. Egypt has a state, an army, secular forces, and a people that has proven themselves and put away two presidents in three years. Egypt is a nation-state in the process of being built anew. Lebanon has an unnatural structure and an abnormal state of narcissism, intimidation, and submission. What happened in Egypt in the face of the protest is the exact opposite of what happened in Lebanon, when the protest lasted for months, obstructed the state, crippled the economy, hampered businesses, and scared away tourists.
Egypt the state behaved like a state and took the task of preserving civil and national security into its own hands. The government in Egypt dispersed the protest and refused to allow it to be a means to take the country hostage. The interim government in Egypt behaved sternly and seriously, at first giving the protest a chance and opening the door to international delegations to convince the Muslim Brotherhood to replace the protest with entering as party to the roadmap to a political process that would not exclude anyone.
After the Muslim Brotherhood refused to comply peacefully, instead becoming more obstinate in its misinterpretation of the messages of American and European delegations, the state warned it and informed it very clearly that it was resolved to disperse the protest. The Brotherhood’s response was a cowardly one, bringing children to use as shields to protect the men. It mocked the warnings instead of soundly interpreting them and coming to the conclusion that they were repeated attempts to give it another chance to correct its course. It behaved obstinately and arrogantly and did not correct its course, but instead purposely drew the army to the protest grounds, clearly provoking it to use force and shed blood. This was the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy, in a carefully designed plan aimed at addressing the West and seeking its help to seize power once again, forgetting that it was its own failure to govern and its abuse of democratic principles that led to a civilian uprising against it, which the army originally came to support, on the back of the Brotherhood’s denial of the right of the majority of Egyptians to a secular state that would separate religion and state.
The process of dispersing the protest in itself bore testimony to the professionalism of the state and the haphazardness of the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, the victims who have fallen are victims of the insistence on protesting, rejecting the authority of the state, and insisting on holding the reins of power. Those who have fallen in this process have been from both sides, most of them as a result of the Muslim Brotherhood’s decision to burn Egypt and its churches in response to the dispersal of the protest. The government announced the death of 278 people, among them 43 from the army, including officers. The Muslim Brotherhood spoke of victims in the thousands. The government declared a state of emergency and curfew for a period of one month, which could be shortened if the situation were to calm down.
The obstinacy and the arrogance of the Muslim Brotherhood have led to deepening the hole it has dug for itself to bury the legend it had weaved in people’s imagination about itself. Indeed, in Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Square has fallen yet another of the illusions of the legend of the Muslim Brotherhood as a colossal force in Egyptian society. The illusion has fallen that Egyptians would choose the Brotherhood over the army. The mask has fallen in Rabaa Al-Adawiyya, as it has fallen in all centers of decision-making, from the presidency to the parliament.
As a shining example of the Muslim Brotherhood’s denial of reality, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda movement, which heads the ruling coalition in Tunisia, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, considered that what was currently happening in Egypt had proven “the bankruptcy of the modernists” and “the heroism of political Islam,” appealing to the Security Council to look into the situation in Egypt. Such a stance represents the pinnacle of both denial and bankruptcy, because it brings together the priority of rule at the expense of the state, and the constant appeal to the West for help in order to rise to power, regardless of the demands or the desires of the people.
Egyptian Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei tried to be both this and that, and at the most delicate moment of the transitional phase in Egypt, he chose to resign. The Tamarod movement described his resignation as evading responsibility, and it is right. Resigning in protest is proof of structural weakness, when protest comes amidst the country’s need for boldness, leadership, and a decisive choice between this and that. Perhaps ElBaradei was trying to please the West, which had warned Commander-in-Chief of Egyptian Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, as well as ElBaradei, against using force to disperse the protest. Perhaps he meant to provide the Muslim Brotherhood with ammunition. Or perhaps the reason for his resignation was his rejection of bloodshed, whatever the motives and the reasons. In any case, ElBaradei made a mistake against himself when he misread the process of dispersing the protest, expecting it to last for a long time and to result in mutually exchanged violence. Indeed, the process was completed within 24 hours, and it became clear in its wake that most of the violence that had taken place had come after the dispersal of the protest, as a result of buildings being stormed and set on fire by the Muslim Brotherhood. ElBaradei was not alone in hastily condemning the state and the army. Indeed, United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also acted hastily and found himself condemning the sovereignty of the law, at a time when the Brotherhood was moving to commit massacres in churches and monasteries and to storm state centers without similar condemnation.
Turkey, Qatarm and Iran voiced condemnation each for their own “personal” reasons. Indeed, both Turkey and Qatar support the Muslim Brotherhood everywhere, while Iran has found an opportunity for itself to get involved in the Egyptian issue, at a time when it is entirely implicated, militarily and in terms of bloodshed, in Syria.
Egypt now faces a phase of the utmost importance, having finally bade farewell to the age of nationalist and religious ideologies, and buried the last of them at the funeral of the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood – a funeral that has been the outcome of suicides committed by the Muslim Brotherhood in power, following its hijacking of Egypt’s first revolution, then its theft of the presidential elections, offered it by the army out of fear of retaliation, and finally its proving unqualified to govern democratically.
Today, Egypt has the opportunity to build state institutions and form a government capable of building the state and of confronting those who would undermine it. ElBaradei represents one of the aspects of weakness in the government, but not the only one. There is now an urgent need to introduce new young and vital elements to government in Egypt. Indeed, Egypt has today decided that it was a secular state, not a religious one. And Egypt must soon prove that it is indeed a secular state, not a religious or a military one.
Egypt represents a different model of history making in the Arab region and of a relationship that may well be qualitatively new between the people and the government, and between the men and women in power and the seats of power. In Syria, there does not seem to be any willingness to change the balance of government, as a result of clinging absolutely to power. In Egypt, on the other hand, the people have toppled two presidents and a vice president, and they are determined to refuse to be humiliated, and to submit to coercion and to being taken hostage.

The State is Unavailable
Husam Itani/Al Hayat
Astonishing is this hatred conveyed by the Egyptian media outlets and social communication websites towards the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group, on the day the two sit-ins were dispersed in the Rabiaa Adawiya and Renaissance areas.
Indeed, the official and privately-owned television channels agreed to consider the protesters as being terrorist murderers who can only be dealt with by force, while gloating and retribution prevailed when talking about their dead whose numbers reached the hundreds within a few hours of clashes with the security forces. In addition, the MB was prevented from responding to the media campaign which targeted it, after the closing of its television channels following the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3.
Some would say that the Brotherhood brought it upon itself after it incited violence when Morsi was deposed - reaching the point where some of its members claimed responsibility for the attacks against the security forces in Sinai – and that the army was assigned by the people to fight terrorism via million-man demonstrations that took to the streets upon the call of Defense Minister Abdul Fattah el-Sissi. This is not said out of sympathy vis-à-vis the Islamists’ experience in power and does not aim to justify their resounding failure in public policy.
But the aforementioned response places the Egyptian crisis before questions surrounding the meaning of the state that is wanted after two revolutions against two regimes, i.e. a non-religious tyrannical one and a religious exclusionist one. And while the clashes are ongoing on the street, the state which the participants in the January 25 revolution dreamed about does not seem imminent, but rather the opposite.
The press conference held by Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim, his slow answers, his dodging of the few serious questions that were asked and his premeditated monologue which goes in line with the groveling of journalists who apparently master the art of telling the minister what he wants to hear, all reveal that the tank of the authoritarian Nasser-Mubarak state is still full.
On the other hand, tragicomic was the naïveté which prevailed over the members of Rebel Movement and pushed them to think for a moment that the Egyptian army will imitate its Portuguese counterpart of the Carnation Revolution and surrender power to the civil opposition. At the same time, whoever believed that El-Sissi would follow in the footsteps of the Portuguese army’s captains were disappointed, as it was clear since the issuance of his warning to Mohamed Morsi that he wants to repeat the experience of Gamal Abdul Nasser, while avoiding the mistakes of Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi and his military council. And what is extremely frustrating is that the Egyptian street did not pick up on the clear signal sent by the MB regarding its assimilation of the shock of Morsi’s ousting and willingness to either negotiate or engage in the confrontation. Hence, the army’s intervention spared the Egyptian civil powers the trouble of continuing their security revolution until the end, and subsequently assuming the responsibility of managing the state, the country, and the necessary reforms.
It is easy to talk about “the return to the pre-January 25” stage and the resumption by the authoritarian state of its usual behavior. But a second look reveals that the state – in its broader sense and not just its authoritarian one – is proceeding towards disintegration and decay, due to the insistence on reviving a lifeless body. And saying that El-Sissi, or any other army officer, can continue the course of the two confiscated revolutions and pave the way before an era of prosperity based on some sort of Nasseri revival, goes against the nature of military institutions in Third World countries, ones which are drowning in politics, business, and the authority that falls between the two. At this level, the Egyptian institution is no exception.
In that sense, it would be wiser to wait until the army and its allies enhance their authority, while primarily benefitting from the popular hostility brought by the Islamists upon themselves and provoked by the media campaigns aiming to convince the citizens about the virtues of safety and security, even if they come from the army barracks, in the face of current anarchy. But all this reveals that the state in its modern meaning is a deferred project until a new and distant revolution erupts.