Region

CAIRO — Egyptian prosecutors Wednesday referred to trial 20 journalists working for Al Jazeera television, including four foreigners accused of “airing false news”.

The Qatar-based news channel, which has incensed Egypt’s new military-installed authorities by its coverage of their crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, said the charges are baseless and “silly”.

The 16 Egyptians have been charged with belonging to a “terrorist organisation... and harming national unity and social peace”, a prosecution statement said.

And two Britons, an Australian and a Dutch woman have been accused of “collaborating with the Egyptians by providing them with money, equipment, information... and airing false news aimed at informing the outside world that the country was witnessing a civil war”.

Of the 20, only eight are in detention, while others are being sought, the prosecution said.

The network said only five of its journalists are being held.

The prosecution did not name the detained, but three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested at a Cairo hotel on December 29. They are Peter Greste, an acclaimed Australian who formerly worked for the BBC; Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Adel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed.

Al Jazeera said “the entire world knows that these charges against our journalists have no basis”.

They are “silly charges and not based on any reality”, the channel said.

“This is a challenge to freedom of speech and the right of journalists to report different aspects of events, and the right of the people to know what is happening,” it added, vowing to pursue the case “all the way”.

It said its journalists had not been officially informed of developments in their case, widely covered in Western media, which the prosecution previously suggested could also violate Egyptian law.

The prosecution previously accused Al-Jazeera crew of links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been blacklisted by the authorities as a terrorist group.

That is part of what has been a deadly government crackdown on the Brotherhood since the July ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the movement.

The blacklisting of the Brotherhood makes promotion of the group either verbally or in writing punishable by lengthy prison sentences.

RAMALLAH — Israeli soldiers shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian in the West Bank on Wednesday, with the army alleging he had opened fire at them although witnesses insisted he was unarmed.

The incident, which occurred just past the Ofra settlement, north of Ramallah, was the first time this year that a Palestinian has been killed by troops in the West Bank.

Palestinian medical and security sources identified the victim as Mohammad Mubarak, 19, from Jalazun refugee camp and said he was working as a labourer on the road connecting Ramallah and Nablus, as part of a USAID-funded project.

His father is locally elected leader of the Jalazun camp and member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fateh party, they said.

The Israeli army said a “terrorist” had opened fire at a military post near Ofra, and troops had returned fire, hitting him.

“We will continue to protect Israeli civilians from acts of terrorism like this,” said army spokesman Peter Lerner, in apparent reference to an attack on settlers.

The military also distributed pictures of the weapon he had allegedly used.

The army later said an investigation had found that the Palestinian first opened fire at passing cars near Ofra before shooting at Israeli soldiers.

But eyewitnesses told AFP that Mubarak was not armed, and he had been harassed by soldiers who made him lift up his shirt to ensure he was not carrying explosives.

Palestinian housing and public works minister Maher Ghneim condemned what he described as the “cold-blooded killing” of a labourer who was working on a project run by the ministry in coordination with USAID.

Ghneim also lashed out at Israel’s attempts to “distort the story” by saying Mubarak had opened fire on troops, claiming the youth had been “carrying a sign to direct the traffic” when he was shot.

He called for an independent inquiry into the shooting by international rights groups.

A total of 27 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank in 2013, three times the figure from the previous year, figures from Israeli rights watchdog B’Tselem showed.

CAIRO — The brazen daylight assassination of a police general in Cairo underscores the growing insecurity in Egypt, as it awaits an announcement from its army chief to run for the presidency.

Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, an Al Qaeda-inspired group from the restive Sinai Peninsula, said it shot dead General Mohamed Saeed outside his home in western Cairo on Tuesday, and threatened more such attacks.

The killing came a day after Egypt’s top brass backed Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to run for the presidency, which if he pitches for is expected to easily win.

Sisi, 59, has said he would stand for the election to be held by mid-April if there was “popular demand”.

“Vengeance is coming,” Ansar Beit Al Maqdis said in a statement addressing Sisi and Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

In just over six months, Sisi has won accolades from a vast section of Egyptians for ousting Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and crushing his Muslim Brotherhood.

Morsi, Egypt’s first elected civilian president, fell after mass protests following one turbulent year in office.

A victory for Sisi would keep alive a tradition of presidents drawn from the military, but the road ahead is expected to be riddled with political turmoil and security challenges.

The Brotherhood, now banned as a “terrorist” group, criticised the army’s backing for Sisi.

“Now it is evident that what happened on July 3 was a full-fledged military coup,” it said, referring to the day of Morsi’s ouster.

“The military council, whose main mission is to protect and not rule, mandated its chief, the leader of the coup, to run for the presidency, so the military can dominate political life in Egypt when it should remain far away from politics.”

General Saeed’s killing and later that of a policeman outside a Cairo church highlights the precarious security situation since the 2011 overthrow of veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak, with the violence having only worsened since Morsi’s removal.

On Wednesday, masked gunmen on motorbike shot dead a policeman in the Nile Delta province of Sharkiya, security officials said.

At least 1,400 people, mostly Morsi supporters, have been killed in a relentless crackdown on Islamists, according to Amnesty International, while scores of policemen and soldiers have fallen to militant attacks.

As part the crackdown, 20 Al Jazeera staff — including award-winning Australian journalist Peter Greste, two Britons and a Dutch woman — were referred to trial on Wednesday.

The authorities have been incensed by the pan-Arab network’s coverage of their campaign against the Islamists.

The foreigners were accused of “airing false news” among other charges, while the remaining 16 — all Egyptians — were charged with belonging to a “terrorist” group, the prosecution said.

Since Thursday alone, at least 14 policemen have been killed across Egypt, while nine soldiers were killed in Sinai.

Five of the soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down with a missile which Ansar Beit Al Maqdis said its fighters fired. The military acknowledged the aircraft was downed.

The media condemned Saeed’s killing.

“Terrorism assassinates general,” declared the front-page headline of state-run Al Gomhuria, while Al Akhbar said “Bullet of treachery assassinates general”.

Sisi’s supporters feel he is the only person capable of restoring stability in Egypt.

The interim leaders have even altered a road map for democratic transition by announcing the presidential election will be held before a legislative vote.

“I would have preferred a presidential election comprising civilian candidates to install a civilian democracy,” said Alfred Raouf of the liberal Al Dostour party.

“But I can understand that people want Sisi to be candidate, as given their security fears they want a strong man” to head the country.

Ansar Beit Al Maqdis vowed to target “the economic interests of the regime, which comprises the gas pipeline to Jordan that sends billions of Egyptian pounds in the pockets of Sisi and his generals”.

It said it would “widen its economic war on [the] traitor clique until it defeats it”.

The Brotherhood, which renounced violence decades ago, has condemned these attacks, but that has not stopped it from being declared a terrorist organisation.

Its blacklisting makes promotion of the group either verbally or in writing punishable by lengthy prison sentences.

CAIRO — Ousted president Mohamed Morsi was defiant as he went on trial Tuesday for a prison break during the 2011 uprising, as a top police official was murdered in another sign of Egypt’s instability.

The trial, and other violence in which a police guard was gunned down outside a Cairo church, came a day after the military backed army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who led Morsi’s ouster in July, to run for office in his place.

Morsi, dressed in a white prison uniform, gesticulated angrily from the glass cage in which he and 21 co-defendants were held.

“Who are you,” he demanded to know, adding: “Do you know who I am?”

“I am the president of the republic. Who are you? Let me hear your voice; I don’t hear you,” he shouted defiantly.

In response, a judge said: “I am the president of the Cairo Criminal Court.”

Among those in the dock was the supreme guide of Morsi’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie.

In all, 131 people are on trial, including dozens of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Shiite group Hizbollah.

Most of them are being tried in absentia.

Reading the charges, a prosecutor said the “Muslim Brotherhood defendants coordinated with Hamas and Hizbollah to spread chaos and trigger the downfall of the state”.

“Eight hundred foreign militants and jihadists infiltrated through illegal tunnels and seized a 60-kilometre border stretch. They attacked security and government buildings and killed many police officers.”

He said “three prisons were attacked and more than 50 policemen and prisoners were killed, while more than 20,000 criminals escaped”.

The trial was later adjourned until February 22.

In the latest bloodletting, police General Mohamed Saeed was leaving his Cairo home when gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at him, hitting him in the head and the chest before fleeing, security officials said.

Saeed, who was the head of interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim’s “technical department,” died in hospital.

Hours later gunmen opened fire from a car at policemen guarding a church in the capital, killing one and wounding two. One was arrested, while two others fled on foot.

Since July, Egypt’s Christian community has faced several attacks, with pro-Morsi Islamists accusing them of backing his ouster.

Ibrahim himself was targeted by a car bomb in September, but he escaped unhurt.

Al Qaeda inspired group Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem, claimed that attack and has also said it was responsible for some of the deadliest bombings in Egypt since Morsi was deposed.

It said it carried out four bombings against police that killed six people Friday, a day before the third anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Precarious security situation

Tuesday’s shootings reiterate the precarious security situation prevailing across Egypt since then, which has worsened since July.

At least 1,400 people, mostly Morsi supporters, have been killed in a relentless crackdown on Islamists, according to Amnesty International, while scores of policemen and soldiers have also fallen to militant attacks across Egypt.

Since Thursday, at least 13 policemen have been killed across the country, while four soldiers were killed in Sinai, according to an AFP tally.

Morsi is already on trial for inciting the killings of opposition activists during his presidency and faces two other trials that have yet to begin.

Tuesday’s trial date was symbolic as it marked the third anniversary of the prison break from Wadi Natrum jail, which took place as the uprising against Mubarak approached a fever pitch.

Morsi and several Muslim Brotherhood leaders had been arrested by Mubarak’s security forces two days earlier to stop them from participating in protests called for January 28, 2011.

That so-called Friday of Rage was a turning point in Mubarak’s downfall, as thousands of people attacked and torched police installations, prompting the hated interior ministry’s forces to withdraw from the streets.

Morsi, Egypt’s first civilian and freely elected president, was ousted following massive protests against his one-year rule.

The wildly popular man behind that, army chief Sisi is now expected to put himself forward as a candidate in the presidential election to be held by mid-April.

To his supporters, Sisi is the best option for ending three years of instability that has helped to wreck the economy.

On Saturday, thousands poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square to back a Sisi candidacy, after he said he required “public demand” to stand in the election.

GENEVA — The UN failed to break a deadlock at Syrian peace negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday, with talks interrupted after the regime railed against Washington instead of dealing with a transition of power.

There was also no movement on bringing relief to besieged residents in Syria’s central city of Homs, where UN trucks are waiting for access to deliver desperately needed food and medical aid.

After a difficult morning meeting on the fourth day of talks, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said he had decided to cancel afternoon talks and reconvene the parties for “what I hope will be a better session” on Wednesday morning.

“Nobody is walking out, nobody is running away,” Brahimi told reporters. “We have not achieved any breakthrough, but we are still at it, and this is good enough as far as I’m concerned.”

A member of the opposition negotiating team, Rima Fleihan, told AFP that Brahimi adjourned the meeting “because the regime is not cooperating on any subject, not on humanitarian issues and not on a transitional governing body”.

She said the opposition had presented a preliminary transition plan laying out its “vision” for Syria, but the regime refused to engage in talks.

“We have a vision, unfortunately the regime presented nothing and refused all discussion,” Fleihan said.

Tuesday morning’s session saw delegates from President Bashar Assad’s regime present a statement it wanted adopted that condemned Washington.

The statement, obtained by AFP, said “the United States has made a decision to resume arming terrorist groups in Syria”.

“This decision can only be understood as a direct attempt to obstruct any political solution in Syria through dialogue,” it said.

It follows a report from the Reuters news agency that the US Congress secretly approved funding for weapons deliveries to “moderate” Syrian rebel factions.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said that showed Washington “is not interested in the success” of the peace process.

A State Department spokesman, Edgar Vasquez, dismissed accusations of Washington supporting terrorism as “ludicrous”.

“The Assad regime is a magnet for terrorists. The regime’s brutality is the source of the violent extremism in Syria today,” he said in a statement.

“We support the moderate political and military opposition who are fighting for the freedom and dignity of all the Syrian people.”

UN hasn’t “given up” on aid to Homs

Delegates from the regime and the opposition National Coalition have been brought together in the biggest diplomatic push yet to end a civil war that has left more than 130,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.

Expectations are low for a breakthrough, especially after the talks hit an impasse Monday when the two sides failed to agree on even the basic principles of political talks.

Despite their frustration, each side vowed it would not be the first to walk away from the talks, which are expected to last until Friday.

In the only tangible promise to emerge from the meetings so far, Brahimi said Sunday the regime had agreed to allow women and children safe passage from besieged rebel-held areas of Homs.

But there has been no movement since, on either an evacuation or Brahimi’s hope that aid convoys will be allowed in the areas.

The Old City of Homs has been under siege since June 2012 after rebels there rose against the regime, with an estimated 500 families living with near-daily shelling and the barest of supplies.

UN bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross have said they are on standby with aid but are waiting for approval to move in.

“The convoy is ready and still waiting to enter. The authorisation has not been given yet,” Brahimi said. “We haven’t given up on that.”

Activists in Homs on Tuesday urged opposition figures at the talks to push for the lifting of the 600-day siege.

“We need the siege lifted and to ensure that residents can enter and exit through safe corridors, without passing through regime checkpoints,” the activists said in a statement.

Should the siege remain in place, “all solutions will be futile, and will do nothing to end this tragedy”, they said.

LONDON — Spillover attacks from the civil war in Syria have hindered development of Iraq’s gas and oil reserves and a major pipeline to the Mediterranean has been blown up dozens of times, Iraq’s top energy official said on Tuesday.

Violence in Iraq climbed back to its highest level in five years in 2013, with nearly 9,000 people killed, most of them civilians, according to the United Nations.

“The ongoing conflict in Syria has resulted in an increasing number of terrorists using vast desert areas between Syria and Iraq to establish bases from which they have carried out attacks against the civilian population and economic targets and infrastructure,” Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Al Shahristani said.

“Attacking the energy sector has been among their top priorities to deprive the country of its main revenue source,” he said.

“The attacks have been focussed on oil export pipelines, power generation and transmission lines.”

Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also fighting in neighbouring Syria, took control of the Iraqi city of Fallujah west of Baghdad with the help of sympathetic armed tribesmen.

Unrest is not limited to central areas near Baghdad but is also spreading to the north where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Kurds fled the Syrian war to neighbouring Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan and Turkey.

“The Iraqi Turkish pipeline was blown up 54 times during 2013, averaging once a week yet we managed to repair and use that pipeline and pump on average 250,000 barrels per day last year,” Shahristani said.

He said operations at much larger oilfields in Iraq’s south which provide the bulk of oil exports from the Gulf remained unaffected.

However, he said security concerns hindered development of reserves in the western region and its Qayara and Najmah oilfields, operated by Angolan state oil company Sonangol in Al Qaeda heartland of Nineveh province in the country’s northwest.

Waiting for a KRG response

Despite the violence, Iraq is gearing up for one of the biggest oil output jumps in its history with international companies nearing completion of major projects which so far have not been affected by unrest.

Iraq will see its oil production capacity rise by more than 50 per cent in 2015 to 4.7 million barrels per day (bpd) compared to more than 3 million at the moment, Shahristani said.

The long-term plan is to raise output to 9 million bpd by 2020 and sustain that rate over 20 years, he said.

Kurdistan has also signed deals with major and mid-sized energy companies in the hope of producing as much as one million barrels per day.

It has built a pipeline to Turkey, but Baghdad insists it has the sole right to export oil from all parts of Iraq, including Kurdistan.

“Any oil that leaves Iraq without the permission of [state company] SOMO is illegal and Iraq will have to take actions to protect its oil wealth,” Shahristani said.

“We have informed Turkey and the KRG that we cannot allow this to continue,” he said. “We are waiting for a response to our latest proposal”.

TEL AVIV — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory should take place within a three-year period under any final Middle East peace deal.

His remarks came as an April deadline loomed for faltering US-backed peace talks, which have been in deadlock over the issue of future security arrangements and other core disputes.

Hawkish Israeli Cabinet ministers, meanwhile, spoke out against making concessions to the Palestinians, highlighting seemingly irreconcilable differences that would need to be overcome for a lasting peace agreement.

“Those who are proposing 10 to 15 years [before a withdrawal] do not want to withdraw at all,” Abbas said in an interview screened on Tuesday at the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) taking place in Tel Aviv.

“We say that in a reasonable time frame, no longer than three years, Israel can withdraw gradually,” he said.

Israel wants to maintain a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley, where the West Bank borders Jordan, but the Palestinians insist Israeli troops must completely withdraw, making way for an international force.

“We have no problem with there being a third party present after or during the withdrawal, to reassure Israel and to reassure us that the process will be completed,” Abbas said.

“We think NATO is the appropriate party to undertake this mission.”

“The Palestinian borders must, in the end, be held by Palestinians and not by the Israeli army,” he added.

Abbas reiterated Palestinian demands that a two-state solution be based on the lines which existed before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967, and said East Jerusalem must be the Palestinian capital.

But hawkish Israeli Cabinet ministers speaking at the conference voiced fierce opposition to any Palestinian demands, particularly that of territory.

“Our ancestors will never forgive an Israeli leader who divides our land and our capital,” Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said, in a veiled warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bennett also criticised US efforts to bring about a peace agreement.

“Anyone who comes up with a bizarre idea in the Western world, they say, let’s try it out on the Jews,” he said, referring to reports of the possibility Jewish settlers could remain in the West Bank and lease their land from a future Palestinian state.

“The state of Israel is not your laboratory,” he said, apparently addressing US Secretary of State John Kerry, who kick-started talks in July and has been on 11 visits to the region.

‘An ocean of peace’

Palestinian negotiators complain that Israel is trying to sideline their demands in the talks — such as future borders — by imposing their own agenda of security in the Jordan Valley and Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

The Palestinians recognised Israel more than two decades ago but have refused to recognise its religious character, fearing that doing so would undermine the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees from past Arab-Israeli wars.

“They say there’s no justification for the Jewish state. That’s what we have to grapple with,” Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said at the conference.

“Even if we cede to their territorial claims ... that still won’t be the end of the Palestinians’ demands,” he said.

The two sides began a nine-month track of US-backed peace negotiations in July but so far there has been little visible progress, with the Palestinians warning that after the deadline they could take legal action in international courts against Israel over its settlement expansion on land they want for their future state.

“I hope we succeed so we don’t have to resort to legal or diplomatic or political confrontation on the world stage,” Abbas said.

“A solution will bring Israel recognition from 57 Muslim countries, a clear, straightforward and diplomatic recognition between these countries and Israel,” Abbas added.

“I hope the Israeli people can understand what it is to be in an ocean of peace, from Mauritania to Indonesia, rather than in an island of peace as it is at the moment.”

NEW ORLEANS — Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remained vague on Monday about whether she would run for president in 2016 and said the militant attack in Benghazi, Libya, was the biggest regret of her four years as the top US diplomat.

Before a large crowd of politically active car dealers, the overwhelming favourite among Democratic presidential contenders discussed her signal accomplishments, notably a recommendation that US commandos go into Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden, and her regrets.

“My biggest regret is what happened in Benghazi,” she said during a question-and-answer session after her keynote speech at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in a packed, 4,000-seat room.

Four Americans, including US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed when militants attacked the lightly protected US diplomatic compound in Benghazi and a better-fortified CIA base nearby on the night of September 11, 2012.

The attack became a political flashpoint in the run-up to the 2012 election, with Republicans arguing that President Barack Obama tried to play down its significance as he campaigned for a second term. Republicans are sure to make it an issue if Clinton runs in 2016.

The selection of Clinton as the speaker at the three-day NADA conference, attended by more than 22,000 dealers, met vocal opposition. NADA, which declined to say how much she was paid for her appearance, said she was selected because she offered an important perspective.

Dealers are a politically active group and tend to be conservative. They gave more than $16 million to political campaigns in 2012, 85 per cent to Republicans, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics.

“Mrs Clinton is a polarising figure but that’s OK,” David Shepard, a NADA director and a dealer in Fort Scott, Kansas, said. He added that the selection was not a NADA endorsement of Clinton as a possible presidential candidate.

Strong ties to industry

Clinton peppered her speech with anecdotes about the Clinton family’s strong ties to the dealer industry — although she herself has not driven since 1996.

She was introduced by Arkansas dealer and NADA director Jack Caldwell, who went to elementary school with former president Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton’s father and uncle were Buick dealers, she said. She also joked about her first two cars, including the yellow Fiat she had while teaching at the University of Arkansas that was eventually stolen.

She also highlighted the American auto industry’s importance in establishing the US presence around the world. She singled out a General Motors engine plant in Uzbekistan, which gave the United States an edge in a area where it is competing for influence with China, she said.

“She has a pretty good understanding about what we do, especially in business,” said Chris Daggs, a Ford Motor Co. dealer in Crestview, Florida. “I’ve always felt she was someone more in our corner as a dealer.”

The last time the conference was held in New Orleans was in 2009, just before the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler Group LLC, which Clinton supported, that helped save the two companies and dealers nationwide.

As expected, Clinton remained vague about whether or not she would run for president in 2016. But she applauded General Motors’ selection of Mary Barra as its top executive — the first time a woman has ever run a major car company.

“We have a lot of women in the corporate pipeline who have been working in their industries for a long time and are finally in a position where I think they could be given the opportunity for leadership like Mary Barra,” she said.

LONDON — Iranian parliamentarians will come to London in the next few months, the first such visit in years, as Iran and Britain try to improve their damaged relations, a group of British lawmakers said on Tuesday.

The visit was agreed during a trip to Iran this month by a four-man delegation from the British parliament that met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and senior lawmakers.

“We formally invited the Iranian Majlis [parliament] and they formally accepted,” Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour parliamentarian who was in the delegation, told Reuters, adding that a date had yet to be finalised but that it would be before the summer.

Britain severed direct diplomatic relations with Iran after activists stormed its embassy in Tehran more than two years ago.

However, the election of a relative moderate, President Hassan Rouhani, paved the way for a thaw in ties which has helped Tehran strike a preliminary agreement about its disputed nuclear programme with six world powers, including Britain.

Britain appointed a non-resident charge d’affaires to Iran in November, reviving direct ties, a step mirrored by Tehran. The British parliamentary delegation, led by former Foreign Scretary Jack Straw, visited Tehran from January 6 to 10.

During a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, the four lawmakers said they had inspected the disused British embassy in Tehran. It was closed in 2011 after a rally against British sanctions turned violent and protesters scaled the walls, ransacked offices and burned buildings.

They said its walls were daubed with graffiti reading “Down with the English” but that they thought it could be restored to full working order fairly quickly providing the Iranian authorities provided assurances about the future staff safety.

CAIRO — Three years after a popular uprising forced out ex-general Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s army is again pushing a commander to stand for president after he ousted the first civilian head of state.

On Monday, the army endorsed its Field Marshall Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s candidacy for an election he is expected to win amid a strong nationalist fervour since he overthrew president Mohamed Morsi.

In just over six months, Sisi has managed to win accolades from a vast section of Egyptians for leading the ouster of Morsi and crushing the Muslim Brotherhood Movement to which the Islamist belongs.

Morsi was toppled after one turbulent year in office following mass street protests amid allegations of grabbing power and ruining an already deteriorating economy.

Announcing its backing for Sisi, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said that “the people’s trust in Sisi is a call that must be heeded as the free choice of the people”.

Sisi is soon expected to resign as army chief and announce his candidacy in a presidential election scheduled to be held by mid-April.

A victory for the 59-year-old would keep alive a tradition of Egyptian presidents being drawn from the armed forces.

Mubarak and all of his predecessors came from the military, starting with the charismatic colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, who ruled Egypt between 1954 and 1970.

And after Mubarak’s ouster, it was Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi who ruled Egypt until the election of Morsi in June 2012. But Tantawi’s tenure was marred by deadly street protests before Morsi was elected.

Sisi is riding a wave of nationalist fervour, however, amid a heavy handed crackdown on Morsi’s supporters, which according to Amnesty International has left at least 1,400 people dead.

To Sisi’s supporters, he is the best option for ending three years of political instability following the 2011 uprising that ended Mubarak’s reign.

And to his critics and experts it is the military’s decades old iron grip on Egypt that has once again brought an army man to the forefront after civilian leaders blew their shot at power.

“There is definitely a political vacuum with no civilian parties able to throw up a good leadership,” said Mohamed Ghorab, an activist from a group that campaigns against military trials of civilians.

“We saw this with the Muslim Brotherhood, [and] they failed. We hoped that another liberal party would come up and fill the vacuum, but that didn’t happen.

“Hence given the backing from a section of the society, the military is now filling the vacuum,” he said in his personal capacity.

‘Old demons of repression’ returning

Since Morsi’s ouster, Sisi has emerged as a nationalist icon, but simultaneously Egypt is also witnessing the return of the feared security services which were widely hated under Mubarak.

In recent months a deadly crackdown that began against Morsi’s Brotherhood has widened, with activists who spearheaded the anti-Mubarak revolt finding themselves behind bars.

Top anti-Mubarak campaigners Ahmed Douma, Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Alaa Abdel Fattah have been detained for organising protests the military-installed authorities say were illegal.

The authorities had defended the removal of Morsi on the back of mass street protests against his rule.

“Their current policies are a betrayal of all the aspirations of bread, freedom and social justice” of the anti-Mubarak revolution, said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International in a statement marking the third anniversary of the 2011 revolt.

She charged the security forces had also not been held to account for using “excessive” force in dealing with protests staged by Morsi’s supporters who continue to demand his reinstatement.

Analysts say the repressive old regime of Mubarak is returning to the fold, but that it is unleashing even more force on dissent than before, now that the military is clearly at the helm.

“Even if the military authorities try to maintain a democratic face, it is now clear that Egypt is being overtaken by old demons of repression, authoritarianism and personal power,” said Karim Bittar of the Institute of International Strategic Relations.

“The hopes aroused by the revolution of January 25, 2011 among the liberals and progressive [people of Egypt] are about to go up in smoke.”