Tag Archives: Egypt

Egypt parliament expels MP for dining with Israeli ambassador

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s parliament voted on Wednesday to expel an independent lawmaker who invited the Israeli ambassador in Cairo for dinner, drawing widespread criticism and prompting a fellow deputy to attack him with his shoe.

Speaker Ali Abdelaal announced that 465 lawmakers, out of 490 who attended the session voted to expel Tawfik Okasha from the legislature, less than two months after it was sworn in.

Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognize Israel with a U.S.-sponsored peace accord in 1979, but Egyptian attitudes to their neighbor remain icy.

Israel has an ambassador stationed in Cairo but many Egyptian officials make a point of keeping their distance and the embassy has been the focal point of protests in the past.

Okasha, a television presenter and lawmaker known for courting controversy, hosted the Israeli ambassador Haim Koren for dinner at his home in the northeastern Dakhalia province last week. He made the invitation live on his television show.

The move triggered outrage in the media and in Egypt’s parliament, with several lawmakers demanding on Sunday that Okasha be dismissed and one colleague, Kamal Ahmed, hurling his shoe during the session in a fit of anger.

On Wednesday, lawmakers voted to remove him permanently. Witnesses said Okasha tried to get into the session to apologize to colleagues before it was too late but was barred by security on the orders of the speaker.

He sat outside, watching the vote on a screen, and left shortly before the session closed, declining to comment.

In comments earlier this week, Okasha said he had done nothing wrong as Egypt has diplomatic ties with Israel.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Lin Noueihed and Alison Williams)

Four Egyptian Christians reportedly punished for mocking Islam

An Egyptian judge punished four Coptic Christian teenagers who were accused of insulting Islam by making fun of prayers in a video last year, the AFP news agency reported Thursday.

A lawyer for the teens told the news agency the quartet was mocking beheadings perpetrated by Islamic State extremists, and did not mean to insult the country’s most-worshipped religion.

However, they became the latest four people punished for blasphemy under Egyptian law.

Three of the teenagers received five-year jail sentences, according to the AFP report, while a 15-year-old was ordered to a serve an indefinite amount of time in a juvenile detention facility.

Their lawyer told AFP he is planning to appeal.

Egypt ranks 23rd on the World Watch List published by Open Doors USA, a group that monitors Christian persecution in countries around the world. The roughly 10 million Christians among Egypt’s 87.3 million residents face persecution from Islamic extremists and must cope with “relatively restrictive legislation related to religious affairs,” according to the organization.

AFP reported it’s also illegal to insult Christianity and Judaism in Egypt.

The Islamic State beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians last February, according to Open Doors USA.

Egypt struggles to get subsidized food to poor amid dollar crisis

CAIRO (Reuters) – “Any rice?” says the woman, leaning into a shop in Cairo and brandishing a green smartcard that carries her family’s food credits. The shopkeeper shakes his head: “Only sugar.”

Behind him, more than half the shelves are empty. Rice and cooking oil are nowhere to be seen.

Tens of millions of Egyptians rely on state subsidies provided as credits on smartcards they redeem against household staples each month. But in recent weeks, imported commodities like cooking oil have been in short supply as a dollar shortage makes it harder for state importers to secure regular supplies.

Shortages persist across the capital and in cities from Alexandria in the north to Minya in the south.

“When we ask the grocer he says there’s nothing but sugar. Every day he says, tomorrow, tomorrow, but we are half way through the month now and it’s not resolved,” said Samia Mohamed, a housewife, at a grocery in southern Cairo.

“Prices elsewhere are expensive. We don’t know what to do.”

Affordable food is an explosive issue in Egypt, where millions live a paycheck from hunger and economic discontent has helped unseat two presidents in five years.

The dangers are not lost on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose government has sought to protect poor Egyptians from the worst effects of double-digit inflation.

The smartcards are accepted at a network of government-run supermarkets as well as 26,000 privately owned grocers and grant each family member 15 pounds ($2) of credits a week plus five loaves of bread a day from participating bakeries.

The Supply Ministry also oversees a network of stores and kiosks offering subsidized food outside the smartcard system.

Goods of all kinds are available at ordinary supermarkets not participating in the smartcard scheme but poor consumers would have to fork out market prices that many can ill-afford.

But even at the discount shops, stocks are low.

At a kiosk, emblazoned with the Egyptian flag and the words “together against high prices” in a historic part of Cairo, a shelf labeled “local rice, 3.25 per kilo” is bare.

“Oil is in short supply. The supplies of oil aren’t stable,” said the manager of the kiosk, which opened in December as part of a government effort to ease food inflation. “Sometimes we are short of rice, sometimes sugar … Sometimes people don’t like the variety. We don’t get enough.”

Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi said on Thursday that stocks at state food companies were being replenished with dozens of products which would be available to smartcard-holders in March.

“LIKE BEGGARS”

Though essential foods are high on the priority list, a foreign exchange shortage has made it more difficult for Egypt’s state food importers to pay promptly over the past year. Worst affected by the shortages has been cooking oil, with payment problems putting suppliers off bidding in state tenders.

Egypt’s state importers have canceled three cooking oil tenders in the last three months alone after not receiving enough offers or because prices were too high.

Traders say they now have to factor in the cost of expected delays, particularly after the government brought in measures which mean they are not paid for up to six months.

“You are talking millions of dollars here. These delays are costly,” said one trader. “They make you feel like a beggar when you chase your money, not answering calls, not responding.”

Egypt has struggled to revive its economy since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising drove away tourists and foreign investors. Foreign exchange reserves have more than halved since then, leaving Egypt with scarcely enough to cover three-months worth of imports.

Pressure has mounted on the central bank to devalue the pound but it has resisted a major adjustment for fear of stoking inflation. Instead, it has imposed strict limits on dollar deposits and transfers, making it harder to clear shipments.

A lack of clarity on rice policy has also caused confusion in the market. Egypt banned rice exports in 2008 but lifted the ban in October after a bumper harvest. It issued a rice import tender last month only to cancel it again and grocers say there is not enough rice in state stores.

BREAD RATIONS

Occasional shortages have been the norm for the past year, but supply issues were compounded in recent weeks by a change in the rules surrounding unclaimed bread rations.

Participating grocers source most of their goods from the state-run Food Industries Holding Company (FIHC) but until this month would receive cash from the Supply Ministry equivalent to any unclaimed bread credits. They would then use the cash to buy other goods on the open market to meet the demand.

Since Feb. 1, they have been refused cash and been offered goods supplied by the FIHC instead.

But grocers say the FIHC is unable to meet demand.

“The issue is not one of oil and sugar. We used to buy 100 products and now we can’t find 10 … More than 50 percent of the supply stores are empty and there are no goods,” said Majed Nadi, spokesman for the General Grocers’ Syndicate.

“They expected to be able to meet all the needs but they couldn’t.”

Hanafi, the Supply Minister, said 2,000 tonnes of rice and 2,500 tonnes of oil were being supplied daily to replenish stocks in addition to goods including pasta, tea, and canned tuna, which have not been in short supply.

FIHC bought 42,000 tonnes of sunflower and soy oils on Wednesday. A previous shipment was due to arrive on Feb 10-20.

Supply Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Diab said the change was intended to reduce prices because FIHC could secure economical bulk deals that individual grocers could not.

“The idea is to bring citizens higher quality goods at lower prices,” he told Reuters. “It is for the good of the people.”

(Additional reporting by Eric Knecht; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Islamic State says Cairo attack was response to leader’s call to target Jews

CAIRO (Reuters) – Islamic State said on Friday its members had carried out an attack on Israeli tourists in Cairo in response to a call by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to target Jews “everywhere”.

The group said in a statement released on the Internet that light arms were used in the attack, which took place on Thursday outside a Cairo hotel.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry has said the attack was directed at security forces and was carried out by a member of a group of people who had gathered near the hotel and fired bird shot.

Security sources said the tourists were Israeli Arabs.

Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate is waging an insurgency based in the Sinai which has mostly targeted soldiers and policemen.

The tourism industry – a vital source of hard currency in Egypt – is highly sensitive to attacks by militants which have slowed a recovery from years of political turmoil.

Militant violence has been rising since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Hundreds of members of the security forces have been attacked in suicide bombings and shootings, which persist despite the toughest crackdown on militants in Egypt’s history.

(Reporting by Mostafa Hashem; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Moscow Bans Egypt National Airline from Flying into Russia

After Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt after the Oct. 31 crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt that killed all 224 people on board, the Russian state aviation agency announced on Friday that it is banning Egypt’s national carrier from flying to Russia.

The only airline flying between the two countries is EgyptAir and this move was to ensure that it meets safety requirements, Russian media reported.
Sinai Province, a group affiliated with the Islamic State, has repeatedly claimed it brought down Metrojet Flight 9268, flying from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to the Russian city of St. Petersburg.
News reports state that Western officials believe there is a strong possibility that a bomb exploded on the plane, but Russia and Egypt say it is too early to draw conclusions.
Many have speculated that a bomb was placed on the plane in Egypt by a worker or workers at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

Several countries, including the UK, have halted flights to and from the resort due to intelligence concerns.

According to Reuters, an airport official said the ban on EgyptAir flights would take effect on Saturday.

ISIS Branch in Sinai Peninsula Threatens to Attack Israel in Latest Video

One of the Islamic State’s branches located on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula released a video on Wednesday, threatening to attack Israel.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the 14-minute video was titled “And Then They Will Be Vanquished.” It features one masked member of ISIS, demanding that Egyptian soldiers repent or be killed for attacking the Sinai jihadis.

“Indeed, this apostate army has failed to carry out the mission it was tasked with, and was embarrassed in front of the public and in front of its masters,” the speaker declares.

The terrorist continued by saying that ISIS would raise its flag over a famous Cairo landmark, the Cairo Tower.

Director of Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of the Middle East Media Research Institute, Rafael Green, told Fox News that the video focuses on the fighting going on in Egypt, but the threat against Israel comes at the end of the video.

The gunman quoted the well-known hadith: “Judgment Day will not come until you fight the Jews and kill them. The Jews will hide behind stones and trees, and the stones and trees will call, ‘O Muslim, o servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him – except for the gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews.’”

“The video is focused on the war against the Egyptian military. The threat to Israel comes at the end, where he says that they will reach the Jews,” Green said.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the speaker could be heard delivering his message while footage showed the Egyptian military allegedly killing civilians and blowing up tanks. Then, images of dead Egyptian soldiers were shown.

And while this same branch of ISIS claimed they brought down the Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula recently, the new video made no reference to the crash.

Investigation of Russian Plane Crash Continues; Bomb Theory Supported By Egyptian Officials

New evidence, including a voice recording of the cockpit, is bolstering the theory that a bomb did take down the Russian airplane, killing 224 people. The Egyptian team investigating the crash told Fox News that they are “90 percent sure” a bomb brought down the plane.

“The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,” the investigator added.

The investigator did ask to remain anonymous due to “sensitivities.”

An Egyptian official heading the investigation told CBS News that there is a noise that can be heard on the recording of the cockpit just before it cuts out, however, they cannot define it as a bomb at this time.

Over the past week, U.S. and U.K. investigators believed that the evidence pointed to a bomb being planted on the plane by Islamist militants due to intercepted chatter from members of ISIS, but Russian and Egyptian officials dismissed the claim. However, an ISIS affiliate has claimed that they brought down the plane since the beginning of the investigation.

And while Egyptian and other officials believe there is a high chance of a bomb being the cause of the crash, Russian forensic experts did warn NBC News that it could be weeks or months before they can conclusively affirm that theory. Pieces of the plane have been sent to Moscow for analysis.

Since the crash, Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt for security issues. Russian inspectors have been sent to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport to investigate security concerns. Egyptian officials are also questioning airport security and staff and some employees are even under surveillance. Security officials at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport have told the Associated Press that there have been gaps in security for awhile. Between non functioning equipment, lax searches, and policemen who can be bribed, that drugs and weapons slip through security all the time according to Fox News.

British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond stated that if a bomb was the cause of the plane crash, that airport security in all areas where ISIS is active would have to be rethought.

At this time Britain and the United States have stopped flights to the resort and Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt due to security concerns.

Russia, Great Britain suspend flights to Sharm El-Sheikh

To say it is chaotic at the Sharm El-Sheikh airport is an understatement as Egyptian authorities said that only eight of the 29 rescue flights that were planned for today will be taking off.  Empty planes are being diverted as passengers that can only take their hand luggage with them are struggling to get home. As stranded passengers observe flight after flight being canceled the frustration is mounting.  

Sharm El-Sheikh is a tourist destination for many in Europe but inbound flights have all been canceled from Great Britain and now very few are being sent to pick up the thousands of British Tourists.  According to Reuters, about 20,000 are believed to be in the area.  

Russia has also just announced that until the results have come in regarding the cause of Metrojet Airbus A321 to break up and crash in Sinai all flights in to the region are suspended.  Putin has declared that this action is only prudent for Russian’s safety. He has also asked that all Russian tourists leave the area.  

There are currently 45,000 Russian tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh, one of the most popular destinations for holidaymakers, according to Oleg Safonov, the head of Russia’s state tourism agency quoted by the TASS news agency.

The numbers of Russian tourists currently in the Red Sea resort bring home how devastating Putin’s decision will be for the Egyptian economy. Up to a third of all visitors are Russian.

Some uninvestigated tweets that are coming by tourists stranded at the airport have spoken about how easy it has been to get around security at the airport citing that $35 would get you out of having your luggage searched.  

Cameron says bomb likely caused Russian airliner crash

Photo courtesy of Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said on Thursday there was a significant possibility that Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate was behind a suspected bomb attack on a Russian airliner that killed 224 people in the Sinai Peninsula.

Russia dismissed the claim as speculation and Egypt said there was no indication so far that a bomb was to blame.

The topic is sensitive for Russia, whose warplanes have launched raids against Islamic State in Syria, and for Egypt, which depends heavily on revenues from tourism.

Asked if he thought Islamic State was responsible, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: “ISIL-Sinai have claimed responsibility for bringing down the Russian aircraft, they did that straight away after the crash.

“We’ve looked at the whole information picture, including that claim, but of course lots of other bits of information as well, and concluded that there is a significant possibility,” he said on Sky television.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said it was more likely than not that a bomb was to blame.

“We cannot be certain that the Russian airliner was brought down by a terrorist bomb, but it looks increasingly likely that that was the case,” Cameron said.

U.S. and European security sources say evidence now suggests that a bomb planted by Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate – Sinai Province – was the likely cause of the crash. The sources stressed they had reached no final conclusions about the crash.

Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands banned flights to and from Sharm al-Sheikh, where the doomed flight originated, while Germany urged travelers to avoid the Sinai Peninsula.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said Russian planes were still flying to and from Sharm al‐Sheikh.

“Theories about what happened and the causes of the incident can only be pronounced by the investigation,” Peskov said.

“So far, we have heard nothing (like this) from the investigation. Any kind of similar assumptions like this are based on information that has not been checked or are speculation.”

 

EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL

Egypt’s civil aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, said of the explosion theory: “The investigation team does not have yet any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis.”

However, the head of Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia said investigators would examine whether there was any explosive material on the plane. Alexander Neradko said the investigation would reach initial conclusions in a few months.

Russia’s Kogalymavia airline, which operated the crashed plane, said three of its four remaining A321 jets had passed safety checks by Russia’s state transport agency, while the fourth would be checked shortly.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launched air raids against opposition groups in Syria including Islamic State on Sept. 30.

Islamic State has called for war against both Russia and the United States in response to their air strikes in Syria. The hardline group, which also has a presence in Egypt’s neighbor Libya, is waging a campaign of suicide bombings and shootings in Egypt designed to topple the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The Egyptian leader is currently on a state visit to Britain, which like other Western powers sees Cairo as critical to efforts to counter militancy.

A senior Russian lawmaker said Britain’s decision to stop flights from Sharm was motivated by London’s opposition to Russia’s actions in Syria, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

“There is geopolitical opposition to the actions of Russia in Syria,” said Konstantin Kosachev, a senior member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, when asked about Britain’s decision.

If a bomb killed the 224 passengers and crew aboard the Airbus A321 <AIR.PA>, that would almost certainly undermine Egypt’s tourism industry, which is still recovering from years of political turmoil.

At Sharm airport, security appeared to have been tightened on Thursday with security forces patrolling the terminals and not allowing drivers, tour agents or others to loiter while awaiting tourist arrivals, a witness said.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and is battling the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula, said again on Wednesday that it brought down the airplane, adding it would eventually tell the world how it carried out the attack. Egypt dismissed a similar claim of responsibility for the crash by Islamic State on Saturday.

 

TOURISM WORRIES

Caution among Egyptian officials in assessing the cause of the crash has not eased anxiety among tourism companies that handle visitors to Egypt’s ancient sites and Red Sea resorts.

Shares in Thomas Cook <TCG.L> opened down 2.1 percent after Britain canceled flights to Sharm, dealing a blow to the tourism industry on which Egypt relies to earn hard currency.

Sisi has described Islamist militancy as an existential threat to the Arab world and the West, and has repeatedly called for greater international efforts to combat the militants.

Britain said it was working with airlines and Egyptian authorities to put in place additional security and screening measures to allow Britons in Sharm to get home. It hoped flights bound for Britain could leave on Friday.

Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai-based militants are not believed to possess the technology to shoot down a jet cruising above 30,000 feet.

Sinai Province has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since Sisi, as army chief, toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Sisi was elected president last year on promises he would stabilise Egypt and rebuild its shattered economy. Critics say his tough crackdown on Islamists will only create more radicals in Egypt, which has fought militants for decades.

 

(Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Tom Heneghan, Giles Elgood and Pravin Char)

Russia Blames “External Influence” for Plane Crash in Egypt that Killed 224 People

A senior airline official representing the Russian airline Kogalymavia has blamed Saturday’s Sinai plane crash on an “external influence,” according to CNN. The crash killed all 224 people that were on board.

The official added that planes don’t just fall apart in midair, but that’s exactly what happened to Kogalymavia Flight 9268 before it crashed into a remote area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The executive did not release details on what he meant by an external influence, but an investigation is underway. Aviation experts on currently looking through the data on the airplane’s “black boxes,” but no results have been shared yet.

BBC News reports that the head of Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency stated that it is too early to know the cause of the crash, despite what the senior airline official has said.

“It is completely premature to speak about the reasons of this, as there are not grounds. And I’d like to call on the aviation community to refrain from any premature conclusions,” Sputnicknews.com quoted Alexander Neradko, the agency chief, who talked to Rossiya-25 television.

CNN aviation analyst Peter Goelz said that because the plane broke into several pieces before hitting the ground, that it helps reduce to the list of possible causes, however, there are still plenty of situations that could have happened.

Here are the only facts that are concrete at this time: the airplane came apart mid air, the plane lost speed and began to descend quickly, and the crew made no attempts to contact any sort of air traffic control to report the situation.

AP reports that Russian Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov stated that the crash site would continue to be searched until all the bodies of the victims were found. Currently, 144 bodies have been sent to St. Petersburg and more are expected to arrive Monday evening.

According to CNN, 217 people on the plane were passengers and 7 were crew members. Of the passengers, 25 were children.

Russian President Putin expressed his condolences to the victim’s families.

“This is a terrible tragedy and we are most certainly with you at this time with all our hearts and souls,” Putin said.

“I want to thank the people of St. Petersburg for the way they have responded. The whole country has seen this, everyone in Russia, and I want to thank you for your words of sympathy and condolence. In such tragic hours, it is certainly very important to feel the support of those close to you and know you have the entire country’s sympathy over this terrible disaster.”

The United States, Germany, and Britain all issued overflight warnings for the Sinai Peninsula previous to the crash due to extremist violence in the area. Germany issued the warnings on October 5 while America and Britain issued the warnings on October 15.