The comparison between the current situation in Egypt with that of the eve of January 25th, 2011 draws astonishment as to the rate in which the closing of the public domain and the shutting down of politics are unfolding. This is the feeling of the revolutionaries who came out in large number to topple President Hosni Mubarak, or rather this is the feeling of many of them; the Tamarrod (or Rebellion) Movement, a youths movement of some of the January 25th revolutionaries that supported the June 30th demonstrations - the popular incubator for the July 3rd, 2013 coup - is in favor of the current president and former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The split that occurred in the alliance that confronted Hosni Mubarak, between the revolutionaries and the Muslim Brotherhood, will later deepen and divide the revolutionaries themselves to a camp diametrically opposed to the July 3rd arrangements and another camp of reformers (or what used to be called the Democratic Wing) which completely blends with the current regime. These splits confirm the difficulty in forming a strong and effective opposition in the short term.
Al-Sisi is governing the country with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which is strongly sponsoring and lavishly supporting the regime. Support from these countries is not limited to economic aid; it extends to whitewashing the regime's image - which is denounced by human rights organizations such as "Human Rights Watch" for committing "crimes against humanity" - through pressuring the US and European governments, which was clear in the shuttle visits of the Emirates Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Europe during last year.
Internally, while the Egyptian opposition scene looks greatly fragmented, al-Sisi seeks to cement his rule using the support of the military and the bureaucracy, but he does not seem very enthusiastic about the existence of a parliament that could shared power, or any part of it, with him.
Some believe that al-Sisi's position regarding the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is currently banned, could change after the death of the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, but this belief does not seem solid or probable in light of current conditions.
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Encourages representatives of the EU Delegation and the embassies of EU Member States in Cairo to attend politically sensitive trials of Egyptian and foreign journalists, bloggers.
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The Egyptians may need to be reminded of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
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Once again, Israeli and Palestinian diplomats are in Cairo. This time, though, the two sides won't even talk to each other. Instead, Egyptians shuttle back and forth between individual meetings.
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Sisi, clearly, remains a work in progress, a 59-year-old still trying to discover who he is and what he thinks even as he rules a country of eighty-six million.
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ِِAfter announcing that Chuck Hagel is being dismissed , his greatest foreign-policy legacy -- relations with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government -- seems to be evaporating
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The Sisi government’s crackdown on perceived immorality is the latest attempt to instill in Egypt a state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam.
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The Egyptian president might not oppose all Islamism — just the violent form.
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In a SPIEGEL interview, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi discusses his country's struggles
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Vladimir Putin arrived in Egypt last night for talks with his Egyptian opposite number on new roubles-only trade deals, the sale of billions of dollars’ worth of guns and tank
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On the domestic front, however, CAIR and MAS could face legal issues. Large numbers of American Muslims support the groups, especially CAIR.
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Youth members are now assuming a more active role in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, pushing the group to escalate its call for revolutionary action against President Sisi.
Darkness descends upon the Arab world. Outsiders compete for influence and settle accounts. The peaceful demonstrations with which this began, the lofty values that inspired them, become memories.
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If you want to know what became of the revolution of 2011,, you could talk to its leaders. Or try to. Some are in exile, and others in jail.
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When an Egyptian court dismissed all criminal charges against former dictator Hosni Mubarak last weekend, many called it the final nail in coffin of the “revolution” that ousted Mubarak from power
If the military hasn't won today, who has? Though Egyptians are still celebrating, they are probably no closer to democracy today than they were three years ago.
Ideas precede action. Before we can hope to generate a coherent set of policies for Egypt, or anywhere else for that matter, we need a better understanding of development.
Some of Lebanon’s ordnance, such as the type used by the 105 mm gun of the upgraded M48 and the M60A3, may only be available in Egypt. During the fighting in Nahr al-Bared in 2007
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Egypt is so desperate to finally come to grips with its energy and fiscal nightmares that its new government is doing the once unthinkable: opening the door to imported natural gas from Israel
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Since assuming office in June 2014, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been making a series of slow but deliberate legal moves to restore and strengthen the authority of state institutions.
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In the search for export options for its new-found natural gas discoveries, Israel has kept things local in recent months with new agreements with Jordan and even a West Bank.
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The Arab country–slowly recovering from a tumultuous past few years that left its economy in tatters and FX reserves sharply depleted–faces some stiff challenges in the coming months
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Whatever controversy about Pinochet that persists today mostly exists on the editorial pages of U.S. newspapers.
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Blumberg recently reached a deal with el-Sisi to build 164 grain storage facilities designed to preventspoilage, reduce price volatility and eventually lead to a local commodities exchange.
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Egypt's government is happily letting exiled billionaires and convicted Mubarak cronies buy their way back home.
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Egypt’s current foreign policy activism is more show than substance. The temptation to expand this approach by intervening in Libya will only reveal Egypt’s vulnerabilities and deepen them further.
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Pope Tawadros II, the main political voice of the Coptic community, has seemingly allied with President Sisi, but this comes at the expense of defending Coptic rights.
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Egypt’s president has a simple solution for activists who protest against his draconian laws criminalising public assembly. Jail them.
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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi finished his first 100 days in office with diplomatic flourish this September.
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This man is an authoritarian presiding over prison camps and state violence. So why is he the toast of Davos?
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Washington should be more interested in helping Egypt defeat jihadis than in punishing Cairo for its repressive approach in Sinai.
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Adly Mansour and now Abdel Fatah al-Sisi are ruling by decrees, banning protest and severely curbing freedom of speech
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The Mubarak verdict and Sisi's crackdown have put the Muslim Brotherhood and the revolutionaries back on the same side. But that won't be enough to heal old wounds.
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The Egyptian military’s economic interests are driving it to seek further political control.
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Egypt is heading toward a coarser and more unalloyed authoritarianism than existed under former president Hosni Mubarak
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On March 13, the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh will play host to a major economic conference.
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The Egyptian government hopes the Egypt Economic Development Conference will succeed in attracting new investments given an expected drop in aid from the Gulf.
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The visit will give the Kremlin a chance to increase its reach in Egypt while signaling to the West that Putin remains an influential world leader.
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THE EGYPTIAN regime of Abdel Fatah al-Sissi again demonstrated its violent and cynical nature last weekend
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The rulers of Saudi Arabia trembled when the Arab Spring revolts broke out four years ago.
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The United Arab Emirates, which is backing Egypt with billions of dollars in aid, said its ally’s decision to raise fuel prices is the “first step” in a broader energy strategy to reduce subsidies
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year and a half after Egypt’s generals seized power in a coup from the Muslim Brotherhood, Investment Minister Ashraf Salman arrived in Washington this week with a simple, two-pronged message
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Egyptians are losing freedoms they fought hard to win
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Whatever assistance al-Sisi may or may not provide in the fight against violent extremism in the region is already outweighed by the radicalism and instability he is cultivating every day in Egypt
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Nothing the Egyptians have done to pacify the Sinai has worked, and some of it — scorched-earth responses to terror attacks
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Egypt's Sinai policy, as executed by security and military bureaucracies, has turned a limited security problem into a local insurgency.
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As the Arab Spring approaches its fourth anniversary, the Arab world generally is at risk of heading towards a future without politics.
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Deeb had good reason to fear for his life. He was among 45 prisoners squashed into the back of a tiny, sweltering police truck parked in the forecourt of Abu Zaabal prison, just north-east of Cairo.
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Egypt is fighting an Islamist insurgency targeting mostly security personnel and based mainly in the lawless Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip.
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The civil-military relationship has proven central to the politics of many Arab countries, both those that underwent transition in 2011 and those that did not.
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Political Islam is under pressure from generals, monarchs, jihadists—and voters
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Mr. Mubarak apparently will go free, and there will be no justice for those who died or accountability for the decades of human rights abuses by his government.
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The regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is trying to unravel the economic crisis that has gripped Egypt since the overthrow of former President Mohammed Morsi in June 2013. Complicating matters, aid from the Gulf states has become less reliable than many had hoped.
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The long-term spending bill that Congress is expected to adopt this week would allow the State Department to resume military aid to Egypt despite ongoing concerns with the country's human rights recor
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I went to Cairo to present Egypt's leaders with evidence that police slaughtered 1,000 people at Rabaa Square. They wouldn't even let me out of the airport.
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ِِAfter announcing that Chuck Hagel is being dismissed , his greatest foreign-policy legacy -- relations with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government -- seems to be evaporating
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The Sisi government, clearly eager for foreign investment, wants to appear as a legitimately elected government playing a constructive role in the region.
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The seven-year deal with private customers in Egypt calls for a minimum 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to be sold in the first three years.
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With the Muslim Brotherhood in disarray, a new generation takes to the streets in Egypt.
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‘We are keen on a strategic relationship with the U.S. above everything else,’ says Egypt’s new president. ‘And we will never turn our backs on you—even if you turn your backs on us.’
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In the past, divisions between competing state bodies, whether ministries or institutions like the military, impeded cooperation in spying on and cracking down on civilian opponents.