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El-Baradei tells US and Iran 'do not miss opportunity'

2013-09-29

[Al Ahram] Nobel laureate and former ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretary-general Mohamed El-Baradei has called on both the US and Iran to seize the opportunity for potential dialogue. El-Baradei added via Twitter that dialogue between the US and Iran is "key to Middle Eastern stability." He asserted such discussion has been on the table for years but has been periodically halted by "hype & failed policies." The former Egyptian vice-president's comments come after a historic telephone call between US President Barack Obama

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Africa North

Egyptian vice president El-Baradei resigns

2013-08-15

[AAWSAT.NET] Egypt's vice president for foreign affairs, Mohamed El-Baradei, resigned on Wednesday after only one month in office, in protest at the decision to use force to clear protest camps occupied by protesters demanding the reinstatement of ousted Moslem Brüderbund-backed president Mohamed Mursi. In his resignation letter to interim president Adly Mansour, which was subsequently posted online, El-Baradei said: "It has become difficult for me to continue bearing responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear. I cannot bear the responsibility for one drop of blood." "As you know," it continued, "I saw that there were peaceful ways to end this clash in society, there were proposed and acceptable solutions for beginnings that would take us to national consensus." El-Baradei's resignation followed the announcement that the official corpse count of Wednesday's violence in Egypt had reached 149, with hundreds more injured. In response to the violence, the Egyptian government declared a month-long state of emergency. It also introduced a curfew in many areas, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Foreign governments were quick to denounce the use of violence, including condemnations from the US, UK, Turkey and Qatar, among others. In his letter, El-Baradei expressed his deep disappointment in the days events--and those that preceded them. "I will remain faithful and loyal to this country, whose security, stability and progress I believe can only be achieved through national consensus and social peace," he wrote. He also said that he believed this in turn is only achievable through the establishment of a civil state and the separation of religion and politics. Observers and analysts have commented over recent weeks on disagreements within the interim government, which failed to reach a consensus on how to approach the dissent from Moslem Brüderbund and pro-Mursi supporters. "Within the government, there are two contradictory directions," Rabab Al-Madi, professor of political science at the American University of Cairo told the AFP news agency. The first camp, she explained, consisted of the interior ministry and military leaders. "The other camp," Mahdi continued, "represented by Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and sometime Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. After the fall of Mubarak he ran for president. He lost. and Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa Eldin, speak to a different constituency and have a more democratic approach."

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Africa North

Egypt's Morsi grants himself sweeping new powers

2012-11-22

Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi has granted himself sweeping new powers, one day after winning praise for his role in brokering the ceasefire in Gaza. Mr Morsi has decreed that all decisions he has made since coming into office, and all decisions he will make until a new constitution is passed, will not be subject to appeal or review by any court. He has also ordered that no court can dissolve the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly which is now drafting a new constitution. And he gave the body - which was due to issue a draft constitution in December - two extra months to come up with a charter, that will then be put to a referendum. Mr Morsi's declaration was aimed at "cleansing state institutions" and "destroying the infrastructure of the old regime," the president's spokesman said. The moves are linked to events in June, when a court dissolved the lower house of parliament, which was dominated by Islamists. Nobel laureate and former UN atomic energy agency chief Mohamed El Baradei lashed out at the declaration, which would effectively put the president above judicial oversight. "Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh. A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences," El Baradei wrote on his Twitter account. Mr Morsi has also ordered the re-trial of leaders from former strongman Hosni Mubarak's regime.

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Africa North

Revolutionary movements name Baradei prime minister in national salvation government

2011-11-26

[Al Ahram] Gathered before the Cabinet offices on Kasr El-Aini Street, representatives of revolutionary movements announced to several thousand protesters, who had earlier marched there from nearby Tahrir, the names of 5 people they would like to form the core of the national salvation government that a million-strong protest in Tahrir and tens of thousands of protesters around the country insist should replace the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in overseeing the transition to a democratic Egypt. Flatly rejecting SCAF's confirmation earlier in the day of its charging Kamel El-Ganzouri, former prime minister under Mubarak (1996-99) of forming the new government, the representatives of the youth and revolutionary movements named Mohamed El-Baradei as the head of the government of national salvation. Nobel Peace Prize winner and former head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, Baradei was slated as a candidate for the presidency. Recently, however, he expressed his willingness to serve as the head of a transition government, so long as that government was properly empowered, and not a mere lackey of SCAF. The movements would also like to see two other erstwhile presidential hopefuls to take up the job of deputy prime ministers in a Baradei-headed cabinet. They are Hamdeen Sabahi, leader of the Nasserist Karama Party and former member of parliament, and Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Futtouh. Two other members of the proposed Baradei cabinet were put forward by the movements as consensus candidates. They are Ahram economic journalist, Ahmed El-Naggar, and Judge Ashraf Baroudy. The announcement came following the SCAF's decision to appoint Ganzouri as prime minister, a move which was viewed by protestors as extremely provocative, and following mass protests demanding that SCAF immediately hand over power to a civilian government. Sources in the leadership of the youth movements indicated that a presser is to be held in Tahrir Square at 8pm, with a number, or all of the political figures named in the demanded national salvation government attending.

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Africa North

Imam Shahin announces deal, police will pull out of Tahrir, youth will sit-in

2011-11-21

[Al Ahram] 3:15am: Imam Mazhar Shahin, the revolution's preacher who led Friday prayers since the outbreak of the revolution and a harsh critic of the old regime, announces via microphone in the squarethat he brokered a deal with government whereby police will cease attempts to break sit-in, youth will form popular committees to secure square , and an end to bloodshed. 2:35am: Numbers in Tahrir halved in the last hour. Thousands still holding square. 2:20am: Young protesters hurl molotov cocktail bombs at police from a buildig roof on Mohamed Mahmoud street to relieve protesters confronting security forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas below. A protester catches fire from a molotov bomb but quickly saved by comrade. 2:15am: Mazhar Shahin Imam of Omar Makram mosque in Tahrir square said on ONTV that he brokered a deal between protestors, the army and the Police. According to Shahin the Police will back up from the outskirsts of Tahrir square while the protestors will refrain of trying to attack the Ministry of interior, while army vehicles will act as a buffer between protestors and the police. It is still unclear if all the groups of protestors will accept the deal. 2:08am: Activists identify green lazer beams that police use when snipers are mobilised. 2:02am: Protesters chant against Tantawi and call for the military council to depart. 1:50am: Battle rages at two entrances to Tahrir. Reports that the police has attacked one of the two field hospitals in the square and demolished it for the second time today. Doctors are making phone calls to divert cases to near by hospitals such as Kasr El-Aini 10 minutes off Tahrir. 1:30am: Police are firing tear gas from Falaki square - 200 meters northeast of the square into the area. Gas is rising and filling up apartment buildings on Tahrir street whch leads into the square. 1:15am: Former presidential candidate Aiman Nour tells ONTV that the army today behaved like Mubarak's repressive forces and it feels that the former Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly is not in jail but actually free and reining repression on the people like the old days. 1:00am: Field hospital outside of KFC in the square continues to treat protesters suffering from gas tear and rubber bullets. 12:15am: Around fifty thousand protesters are still in Tahrir. Clashes still ongoing at Tahrir Street and Mohamed Mahmoud street leading to the Ministry of Interior between protesters and military police 12:04am:Ministry of health raises count of dead to 10 and injured to over 1700 after two days of festivities. 10:30pm: Ministry of health raises count of dead to 6 and injured to over 1000 after two days of festivities. 10:27pm: Protesters continue to hold off police at Mohamed Mahmoud street off square. 10:11pm: The president of the influential Journalist syndicate, Mamdouh El-Wali, defends the people's right to protest, condemns violence against news hounds and protesters by authorities, and announces that the entire board of the syndicate demands the resignation of the government of Essam Sharaf. 9:55pm: Crowds in Tahrir demand that military council give up power. "The People want the field marshal out!", "Depart means go! What do you not understand?" 9:45pm: Egyptian state tv releases the first statement issued by SCAF following the failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! of security forces to evacuate protesters from Tahrir in which the council calls on all political parties and youth groups to assist the council in containing the situation in Tahrir. 9:40pm: Numbers increase in the square. Tens of thousands roar in Tahrir against military council. "Speak up, do not be scared - the council must depart", We will defend the revolution till death" and other chants. 9:18pm: Presidential hopeful Mohamed El-Baradei releases a statement condemning government violence in dispersing Tahrir protesters, supports demands of stopping military trials against civilians and the formation of a salvation government with full jurisdiction. 8:53pm: Protest in front of the security directorate headquarters in the city of Qena, in solidarity with Tahrir protesters. 8:21pm: Police firing tear gas at the protest in front of the Alexandria police headquarters in Semouha. Residents in close buildings can hear the screams and chants, smell the tear gas.

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Africa North

Thousands protest in Tahrir in support of national unity

2011-05-14

Thousands of Egyptians started to gather in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo on Friday to participate in a protest in support of national unity and to condemn the sectarian confrontations that took place last week and resulted in the death of 15 Christians and Muslims. Egyptian political forces, including the campaign to support Mohamed El-Baradei, the April 6 Youth Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood, called for the protest to condemn the confrontations between Muslims and Christians in the neighborhood of Imbaba. The confrontations took place last Saturday after rumors that a Christian woman who had converted to Islam was being detained in a church in the area. Other groups called for a protest on Tahrir Square to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (calamity) and the establishment of the state of Israel. So was this a 'spontaneous' demonstration or just the usual rubes?

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Africa North

US presses Mubarak to act now

2011-02-05

[Arab News] Tens of thousands packed central Cairo for the 11th day Friday, which they called the "Day of Departure" for geriatric President Hosni Mubarak as the United States pressed Egypt for a swift start toward greater democracy, including a proposal for Mubarak to step down immediately. At a summit in Brussels, the European Union's 27 leaders said Egypt's "transition process must start now" and condemned this week's violence while issuing a veiled threat of suspending aid. Thousands including families with children flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square, a sign the movement was not intimidated after fending off storms of hurled concrete, metal bars and Molotov cocktails, fighters on horses and camels and automatic gunfire barrages. In the wake of the violence, more details were beginning to emerge for a transition to democratic rule after Mubarak's nearly 30-year reign. The B.O. regime said it was discussing several possibilities with Cairo, including one for Mubarak to leave office now and hand over power to a military-backed transitional government. Around 200,000 protesters demonstrated in the square in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied Tuesday, holding up signs reading "Now!" The crowd attended Friday prayers, followed by funeral prayers for the hundreds who fell to police bullets and attacks by pro-government agents. Prayers over, they chanted their message to Mubarak: "Leave! Leave! Leave!" Mohammed Rafat Al-Tahtawi, the front man of state-run Al-Azhar Mosque, the country's pre-eminent Islamic institution, announced on Al Jizz that he had resigned from his position to join the protesters. In the afternoon, a group of Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences to raise an intimidating clamor. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back. The Arabic news network Al Jizz said a "gang of thugs" stormed its offices in continuation of attacks on journalists by regime supporters that erupted Thursday. It said the attackers burned the office and damaged equipment. The editor of the Mohammedan Brotherhood's website, Abdel-Galil El-Sharnoubi, told the AP that coppers stormed its office Friday morning and nabbed 10 to 15 of its journalists. Also festivities with sticks and fists between pro- and anti-government demonstrators erupted in two towns in southern Egypt. Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi -- regarded by Washington as a key plank of any post-Mubarak administration -- visited the square to appeal to demonstrators to give up their protest in the light of Mubarak's pledge earlier this week not to seek re-election. "The man (Mubarak) told you he won't stand again," Tantawi told the protesters flanked by troops. He urged opposition leaders, including the supreme guide of the powerful Mohammedan Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, to join talks with the government on political transition. Various proposals for a post-Mubarak transition floated by the Americans, the regime and the protesters share some common ground, but with one elephant-sized difference: The protesters say nothing can be done before Mubarak leaves. The 82-year-old president insists he will serve out the remaining seven months of his term to ensure a stable process. "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now," Mubarak said he told President Barack B.O. Obama. He warned in an interview with ABC News that chaos would ensue. But the B.O. regime was in talks with top Egyptian officials about the possibility of Mubarak immediately resigning and handing over a military-backed transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman. Such a government would prepare the country for free and fair elections later this year, according to US officials speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . The officials stressed that the United States is not seeking to impose a solution on Egypt but said the administration had made a judgment that Mubarak has to go soon if there is to be a peaceful resolution. Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed El-Baradei, one of the leaders of the protest movement, laid out his scenario on Friday: a transitional government headed by a presidential council of two or three figures, including a military representative. El-Baradei said he respects Suleiman as someone to negotiate with over the transition, but did not address whether he should have any presidential role. The Egyptian Football Association said the country's football league has been suspended until a "return of stability" to the country. Egypt told the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society it is unhappy with Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon's public criticism of the government and his calls for change, according to a spokeswoman for Egypt's UN mission. Ban this week urged Mubarak and his government to take "bold measures" to address the concerns of people demonstrating for change.

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Africa North

US envoy talks to El-Baradei

2011-02-02

[Arab News] US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey has spoken to Egyptian diplomat Mohamed El-Baradei, the State Department said on Tuesday in its first acknowledgment of any recent direct contact with the opposition figure. "As part of our public outreach to convey support for an orderly transition in Egypt, Ambassador Scobey spoke today with Mohammed ElBaradei," State Department front man P.J. Crowley said in a message on Twitter. El-Baradei, a former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, returned to Egypt last week and has offered to act as a transitional leader to prepare Egypt for democratic elections amid mounting protests against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak. El-Baradei, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work at the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, has participated in the recent protests but analysts say he has limited public appeal in the country due to his long absences overseas. On Monday, Crowley suggested the United States had not had any recent dealings with the 68-year-old El-Baradei. "I don't believe that we've had any contact with Mr. El-Baradei in recent days," he said in his daily briefing.

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Africa North

El-Baradei not a unifying force in Egypt

2011-02-02

[Arab News] It could have been a historic occasion. Mohamed El-Baradei, the Nobel laureate who had just been anointed leader of the coalition trying to bring down Egypt's government, arrived on Sunday night to address thousands of demonstrators at the epicenter of the rebellion, Cairo's Tahrir Square. Surrounded by news cameras, he began speaking. "Change is coming in the next few days. You have taken back your rights and what we have begun cannot go back," he said as crowds chanted "Down with Mubarak." But with no stage to speak from and no public address system, El-Baradei was quickly overwhelmed by the chaos around him. He quickly cut short his remarks and left. As mass protests across Egypt enter their second week, El-Baradei has been tapped by Egyptian opposition groups including the Mohammedan Brotherhood to negotiate with geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, casting him as much as anyone in the otherwise disorganized opposition as leader. El-Baradei has made clear he welcomes the role and sees bigger things ahead for himself if the Mubarak government is brought down, as protestors are hoping. "If (the people) want me to lead the transition, I will not let them down," El-Baradei said last week after he arrived in Cairo from Europe. El-Baradei, 69, is favored by Western media as a voice of moderation, democracy and secularism -- a candidate acceptable even to the Mohammedan Brotherhood, which has been playing an increasingly large role in the protests. But among ordinary Egyptians, few see him as the person destined to lead the country. "I don't see El-Baradei as a leader at all. He wasn't there when the protests began, and took no risk," Dalia Ziada, a social activist, blogger and head of the North Africa bureau of the American Islamic Congress based in Cairo, told The Media Line. "He never participated in politics; he was only a United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society employee." The protests in Egypt until now have been mostly a spontaneous affair, sparked the by success of the Tunisian street in forcing President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali into exile earlier this month. The absence of a single leader has done little to deter demonstrators from defying the police and army, with Tahrir Square drawing hundreds of thousands on Tuesday for the declared "million man march." But if the opposition gets its wish and Mubarak opens negotiations or steps down, someone will have to play leader. The monopoly Mubarak and his National Democratic Party has had over political life in Egypt for three decades leaves few people naturally positioned for the talks. El-Baradei comes with some excellent credentials. In his 12 years as director-general of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based watchdog monitoring nuclear proliferation, he publicly clashed with the U.S. over how hard to come down on suspected Iranian violations and on the American-led invasion of Iraq. He was also tough on Israel, publicly accusing the Jewish state of violating international law in its alleged attack of a Syrian nuclear facility. After stepping down from the IAEA in 2009, he positioned himself as a stern opponent of the Mubarak regime. "He spent most of his life in UN organizations," Ephraim Asculai, who worked at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and was in charge of external relations during El-Baradei's term at IAEA, told Israel's Ynet news site on Monday. "He's a very impressive person, no doubt about it. I wouldn't say he was a great friend of Israel. He isn't extreme, but he certainly didn't relate to us particularly warmly over the years." But El-Baradei's career works against him as well. He has been outside Egypt most of his adult life, working as a diplomat and global bureaucrat whose life is far removed from the experience of ordinary Egyptians. Born in Cairo in 1942 to a well-connected family, his father was president of the Egyptian Bar Association. He began his career in the Egyptian foreign service in 1964. In 1980, he left to join the UN, becoming a senior fellow in charge of the international law program at the UN Institute for Training and Research and later served as an adjunct professor of international law at the New York University. He became director of the IAEA in 1997. "He's not particularly a unifying force among the opposition and protesters," Maye Kassem, associate professor of political science at American University of Cairo, said. "He's very attractive to a small group of intellectuals, but on the whole he's certainly not a unifying force. There's really no leader who is unifying force right now." After his return to Egypt in 2009, he came under criticism from many Egyptians for spending more time outside the country on official visits and failed to exploit the opportunity of last November's parliamentary elections to unite the opposition parties. When El-Baradei arrived last week at Cairo airport from Vienna, he was greeted by a crowd of journalists rather than throngs of supporters. Kassem said more promising candidates to lead the opposition include Ayman Abd Al-Aziz Nour, who served time in prison in 2005 after he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and charged with fraud. As head of the Tomorrow Party, later that year he mounted a quixotic challenge to Mubarak in the rigged presidential elections. People know he's been in prison and he competed in the presidential elections. He's a self-made man who people can relate to," Kassem said. "The more neutral an individual is the more stable the country will be -- this will be acceptable to everybody -- not just to the Western-orientated, not to Islam-orientated and not to the nationalist-orientated."

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Africa North

Change is coming to Egypt: El-Baradei

2011-01-31

[Arab News] Top dissident Mohamed El-Baradei told a sea of angry protesters in Cairo on Sunday that they were beginning a new era after six days of a deadly revolt against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak. Nobel peace laureate El-Baradei, mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the banned Mohammedan Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak's government, hailed "a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity." "We are on the right path, our strength is in our numbers," El-Baradei said in his first address to the protest epicenter on Cairo's Tahrir Square. "I ask you to be patient, change is coming." Six days of nationwide protests have shaken Egypt and left at least 125 people dead. The president has sacked the government, appointed a vice president and a new prime minister. But that has failed to quell the protests. Parliament Speaker Fathi Surour on Sunday made another concession, saying the results of last year's fraud-tainted parliamentary elections would be revised. Mubarak on Sunday met with army brass as warplanes in an apparent show of force flew over the downtown Cairo protest. State television said the president visited Egypt's central military command where he met with his newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, the military intelligence chief; as well as with outgoing Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi and Chief of Staff Sami Anan. The National Coalition for Change, which groups several opposition movements including the banned Mohammedan Brotherhood, charged El-Baradei with negotiating with the government. Gangs of gunnies attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn Sunday, helping to free hundreds of Mohammedan Brotherhood members and thousands of other inmates as police vanished from the streets of Cairo and other cities. Among those who beat feet were members of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, some of whom made it back to the Gazoo Strip via smuggling tunnels. Qatar-based satellite channel Al Jizz was ordered by the Information Ministry on Sunday to shut down its operations in the country, and later in the day its signal to some parts of the Middle East was cut. The news channel said in a message on its broadcast that Egypt's satellite Nilesat had cut off its signal. That effectively took Al Jizz off the air for some Arab viewers, but alternative signals were still available. Microsoft Soddy Arabia was forced to cancel an Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging Course, which was to be held for MS partners Monday in Riyadh. The Kingdom is dependent on Egypt's IT resources. From Web developers to data centers to call centers, Soddy Arabia makes heavy use of Egypt's low-cost Arabic-speaking technicians, either accessed over the Internet or as contracted professionals working at local firms. A number of foreign governments said they would evacuate their nationals, while the United States authorized the departure of embassy families.

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Africa North

Mubarak names VP, raising succession talk

2011-01-30

[Arab News] Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak named a vice president Saturday for the first time since coming to power nearly 30 years ago -- a clear step toward setting up a successor in the midst of the biggest anti-government protests of his regime. After five days of protests, Cairo was engulfed in chaos. There was rampant looting and lawlessness was spreading fast. Residents of affluent neighborhoods were boarding up their houses against gangs of thugs roaming the streets with knives and sticks and gunfire was heard in some neighborhoods. Tanks and armored personnel carriers fanned out across the city of 18 million, guarding key government buildings. Egyptian television reported the army was deploying reinforcements to neighborhoods to try to control the lawlessness. Thousands of protesters defied the curfew for the second night Saturday, standing their ground in the main Tahrir Square in a resounding rejection of Mubarak's attempt to pacify them with promises of reform and a new government. "What we want is for Mubarak to leave, not just his government," Mohammed Mahmoud, a demonstrator in Tahrir Square, said Saturday. "We will not stop protesting until he goes." A few tanks were deployed in the square. But there have been no festivities between protesters and the military at all and many feel the army is with them. Anti-Mubarak graffiti was scrawled on one tank. In contrast, protesters have attacked police, who are hated for their brutality. On Friday, 17 cop shoppes throughout Cairo were torched, with protesters stealing firearms and ammunition and setting some jugged suspects free. They also burned dozens of police trucks in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. On Saturday, protesters besieged a cop shoppe in the Giza neighborhood of Cairo, looted and pulled down Egyptian flags before burning the building to the ground. One army captain joined the demonstrators in Tahrir, who hoisted him on their shoulders while chanting slogans against the president. The officer ripped a picture of the president. Violence erupted when thousands of protesters tried to storm the Interior Ministry and police opened fire. At least three protesters were killed and their bodies were carried through the crowd. The corpse count for five days of protests has risen sharply since Friday to at least 62 with about 2,000 injured on both sides, according to security officials. Mubarak sacked his Cabinet Saturday and promised reforms to try to quell the protests. He named his intelligence chief of nearly two decades and close confidant Omar Suleiman as vice president, state television reported. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? Like Mubarak, Suleiman, 74, has a military background. The powerful military has provided Egypt with its four presidents since the monarchy was toppled nearly 60 years ago. He has been in charge of some of Egypt's most sensitive foreign policy issues, including the Paleostinian-Israeli grinding of the peace processor. Mubarak also named his new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, the outgoing civil aviation minister and fellow former air force officer. Al Arabiya television quoted the speaker of Parliament as saying Egypt has no plans for early elections. The presidential election is due in September. Leading Egyptian dissident Mohamed El-Baradei said the measures were not enough to end the revolt. In comments to Al Jizz television, he urged Mubarak to leave Egypt as soon as possible for the good of the country. "I have respect for Suleiman and Shafiq, but replacing individuals is not enough," the former UN nuclear watchdog chief said. The United States told Mubarak it was not enough to simply "shuffle the deck" with a shake-up of his government and pressed him to make good on his promise of genuine reform. "The Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat," State Department front man P.J. Crowley said in a message on Twitter after Mubarak fired his government. "President Mubarak's words pledging reform must be followed by action," he added, echoing President Barack B.O. Obama's call on Friday for Mubarak to embrace a new political dynamic. Obama spoke to Mubarak on Friday and said he told him to undertake sweeping reforms, while US officials made clear that $1.5 billion in American aid to Egypt is at stake. The military extended the hours of the night curfew imposed Friday in the three major cities where the worst violence has been seen -- Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. State television said it would begin at 4 p.m. and last until 8 a.m., longer than the 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. ban Friday night that appeared to not have been enforced. The military closed the pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo -- Egypt's premiere tourist site. Hundreds of people crowded the capital's main international airport hoping for a flight out on Saturday but Western carriers were canceling, delaying or suspending service after days of violent unrest. A British airline turned around its Cairo-bound jet in mid-flight. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people flocked to Cairo Intentional Airport, many without reservations. Officials said that about half were tourists and half Egyptians. British Midlands International said its flight from London Heathrow to Cairo turned around because a shift in the start of a nighttime curfew had made it impossible to land in time for passengers to make it out of the airport. The United States, La Belle France and Germany issued warnings to their respective citizens, urging them to cancel nonessential travel to Cairo and to remain indoors and away from flashpoint areas if they were already in the country. Kuwait said it is bringing citizens and residents home from Egypt. Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Roudhan Al-Roudhan said "Kuwaiti citizens and residents are being brought back home on free flights in light of the current security troubles in Egypt," state news agency KUNA reported. These orders have been "given to officials in Kuwait Airways, who are to coordinate efforts with Cairo International Airport, in order to allow extra flights to land in the airport." Internet appeared blocked for a second day to hamper protesters who use social networking sites to organize. And after cell phone service was cut for a day Friday, two of the country's major providers were up and running Saturday. Wealthy Egyptian businessman Ahmed Ezz, a close confidant of the president's son and one of the targets for protester criticism, has resigned from ruling party, state television reported. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? Protesters ransacked and burned one of his company's main offices in Mohandiseen. On Saturday, some protesters held up posters with a cross marked over the face of Ezz, who is chairman of Ezz Steel. In the capital on Friday night, hundreds of young men carted away televisions, fans and stereo equipment looted from the ruling National Democratic Party, near the Egyptian Museum. Others around the city looted banks, smashed cars, tore down street signs and pelted armored riot police vehicles with paving stones torn from roadways.

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Africa North

El-Baradei's visit to US provokes backlash at home

2010-05-07

Mohamed El-Baradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and leader of a political reform campaign in Egypt, concluded a two-week visit to the United States. Although originally planned for delivering lectures on the IAEA's role in containing nuclear arms, El-Baradei seized the opportunity to rally Americans for the case of political reform in Egypt. In El-Baradei's words: "the primary goal of my visit to America is discussing the issue of political and constitutional reform with Egyptian expatriates and addressing Americans about political reform and change in Egypt and the Arab world." On 26 April, El-Baradei addressed a two-hour meeting of some 200 Egyptian Americans in Harvard University on "the future of democracy in Egypt". El-Baradei painted a bleak picture of political and economic conditions in Egypt. El-Baradei, also founder of the National Association for Change (NAC), explained that his agenda for reform aims at turning Egypt into "a social democracy" like the Western European countries of Austria and Sweden. Egypt doesn't have the economic surplus and the social cohesion to become a Sweden or an Austria. According to Mohamed Abul-Ghar, a Cairo University professor and the NAC's coordinator for foreign relations, El-Baradei's Harvard address focussed on explaining the NAC's seven objectives. "These," Abul-Ghar told Al-Ahram Weekly, include "amending the constitution, eliminating the state of emergency, abolishing military tribunals, releasing political prisoners, [ensuring the] separation of powers, improving Egypt's record on human rights and issuing a unified law for regulating places of worship." Abul-Ghar disclosed that El-Baradei had assured Egyptian-Americans -- mostly Copts -- that his agenda stresses that all Egyptians, regardless of religion or sex, are equal in rights." De jure vs. de facto. That's a big deal in countries where the culture ensures the rule of law is very week indeed. Responding to a question about his relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, El-Baradei stressed that "the Brothers" should be allowed to participate in political life as long as they "abide by democracy and democratic rules". On man, one vote, one time, should the Muslim Brotherhood ever be allowed to attain significant power. Before he went to the United States, El-Baradei was keen to make as many press interviews with American media as possible. He told the Harvard University meeting that he is proud that his reform campaign and foreign press interviews "forced The Washington Post to publish three editorials about the case of reform in Egypt in a very short time". Continuing this strategy, El-Baradei made an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on 28 April. Amanpour's programme, "The Power of the Interview", also hosted Saadeddin Ibrahim, the Egyptian-American sociologist, and Ahmed Ezz, secretary of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) for organisational affairs. The plan, clearly, is to have President Obama force Egypt to do Dr. El-Baradei's will, as he is to force Israel to do the Palestinians'. Thank you, President Obama. El-Baradei's visit to America has provoked a strong backlash in Egypt. Speaking before parliament on Sunday, Ezz strongly attacked "those who want to implement a style of American democracy based on staging street demonstrations and flirting with religious movements." Jihad Auda, a Helwan University political science professor and NDP member, agrees: "El-Baradei made use of his US visit to court the Obama administration and seek its support for his political reform and change campaign in Egypt." El-Baradei, said Auda, believes that "the US administration's criticism of the 6 April demonstrations and its call for free elections has caused a rift with the regime of President Mubarak and that this is a good time for him to catch fish in murky water." Responding to Auda, the NAC's Abul-Ghar stressed that, "El-Baradei's US visit was planned three months ago and it is the right of the NAC's leader to rally support among Egyptian expatriates for change in Egypt." Abdallah El-Sinnawi, editor of Al-Arabi, mouthpiece of the Arab Nasserist Party, told the Weekly that, "it was very bad for El-Baradei to call upon the US administration not to keep silent about human rights violations in Egypt." "This is a call for American interference in internal [Egyptian] affairs," argued El-Sinnawi, adding that "as long as we criticised the visits of the son of President Mubarak, Gamal, to America to raise his profile among officials there, the same thing applies to El-Baradei." "We believe that those who would like to run for the presidency should raise their profile here in Egypt and garner credibility and popularity among the Egyptian people rather than paying frequent visits to America to court the ruling administration," El-Sinnawi argued, also considering El-Baradei as "a reactionary man who attacks farmers and workers or the sons of the 1952 Revolution." "Why should I talk to the common people?" asked Dr. El-Baradei, plaintively, "The common people stink." Nabil Louqa Bibawi, an NDP-appointed member of Shura Council and a Coptic businessman, agrees: "El-Baradei made use of his US visit to court the Obama administration. He is fond of US television cameras and press interviews to convey his love messages to the US administration." Bibawi said, "the Egyptian Coptic community in America doesn't represent Copts living in Egypt, who strongly reject what El-Baradei said about the Muslim Brotherhood and their right in founding a political party."

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