Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was released from a Cairo jail on Sunday and was deported from Egypt after 400 days in prison. The interior ministry said on its Facebook page that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi released Greste under a decree issued in November authorizing him to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners.
He is returning to Australia via Cyprus. “He was immensely relieved and he was desperate to come home to Australia and reunite with his family,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. A security official said Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy was also expected to be released from Cairo’s Tora prison within days. According to a source at Egypt’s foreign ministry, his deportation procedures will be finalized after he renounces his Egyptian nationality. Amnesty International has called for Fahmy’s release, along with the third imprisoned Al Jazeera journalist, Baher Mohamed. [DNE, AP, BBC, Reuters, Mada Masr, 2/2/2015]
EGYPT | LIBYA & THE MAGHREB | SYRIA & ITS NEIGHBORS | YEMEN & THE GULF | ECONOMICS
Foreign ministry criticizes US for hosting MB leaders
Foreign Minister Sameh Shokry said he finds US State Department justifications for hosting Muslim Brotherhood members hard to comprehend, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Saturday. In a US State Department press briefing, held on Thursday, spokesperson Jen Psaki said that Egyptian former parliamentarians, including members of the dissolved Freedom and Justice Party, on a Georgetown University-funded visit to the United States, met with US State Department representatives. Shokry said told media at the African summit in Ethiopia that other countries should respect Egyptian law, which decreed the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. The foreign ministry in a statement on Sunday accused the Brotherhood-affiliated Egyptian Revolutionary Council and the Revolution’s Parliament of issuing false statements about the reality of the situation in Egypt. It also indicates that these entities are inciting violence and terrorism, as well as circulating lies abroad. [Mada Masr, Egypt Independent, 2/1/2015]
Sisi creates unified military command to combat terrorism in Egypt’s Sinai
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree on Saturday to create a unified military command for the east of the Suez Canal to combat terrorism, two days after a series of militant attacks killed at least thirty-two people in the restive Sinai. General Osama Roshdy Askar will lead the new unified command structure. lt will guide counterterrorism activities of the Second and Third army. The decision comes as the president held a meeting with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Askar was promoted to lieutenant general on Saturday as he assumes his new responsibilities. Defense Minister Sedky Sobhi appointed General Mohamed Abdullah as the new commander of the Third Army, replacing Askar. The Egyptian army said on Friday that militant attacks would not deter the armed forces from their “holy duty of uprooting terrorism.” Sisi blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the Sinai insurgent attack, implicitly tying the group to the Islamic State-affiliated Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. [Ahram Online, DNE, Aswat Masriya, Egypt Independent, AP, 2/1/2015]
Nearly 200 pro-Morsi defendants receive final death sentence in Kerdasa murders
A Giza criminal court has issued a final death sentence against 183 defendants for eleven police officers during an attack on the Kerdasa, Giza police station in August 2013, following the dispersal of pro-ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi sit-ins in Cairo. On December 2, 2014, the court had referred the case of 188 defendants to Egypt’s grand mufti to ratify the death sentences. The mufti’s ratification is however not binding to the court. Out of the 183 defendants, thirty-four were tried in absentia. Of the remaining five defendants, one was sentenced to ten years in prison, two were acquitted, and two passed away. In a separate case, former Islamist parliamentarian Islamist Mamdouh Ismail was sentenced to life in prison in absentia Monday on charges of involvement in violent events in Rod al-Farag following the dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-ins in 2013. [Ahram Online, AP, DNE, Egypt Independent, Reuters, Mada Masr, 2/2/2015]
Egypt frees Al Jazeera journalist Greste, two others still held
Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was released from a Cairo jail on Sunday and was deported from Egypt after 400 days in prison. The interior ministry said on its Facebook page that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi released Greste under a decree issued in November authorizing him to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners. He is returning to Australia via Cyprus. “He was immensely relieved and he was desperate to come home to Australia and reunite with his family,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. A security official said Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy was also expected to be released from Cairo’s Tora prison within days. According to a source at Egypt’s foreign ministry, his deportation procedures will be finalized after he renounces his Egyptian nationality. Amnesty International has called for Fahmy’s release, along with the third imprisoned Al Jazeera journalist, Baher Mohamed. [DNE, AP, BBC, Reuters, Mada Masr, 2/2/2015]
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Kidnapped Libyan oil official released
Samir Kamal, Libya’s representative to OPEC and planning director at the Libyan National Oil Corporation has been released after two weeks in captivity. Kamal was kidnapped in his office in Tripoli two weeks ago. The men responsible and reasons for the kidnapping remain unclear, as do where he was held or whether a ransom was requested. Kamal’s kidnapping comes as Tripoli has recently seen an increase in abductions and violence. [Reuters, Libya Monitor (subscription), 2/1/2015]
Libyan PM visits Benghazi to support troops
Libya’s internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and his ministers visited Benghazi on Sunday in an effort to show support for the troops in the region. Forces under General Khalifa Haftar, who are loyal to al-Thinni’s government, have waged a campaign to push out the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia fighters from the city. Thinni visited to show that Benghazi was not hijacked by terrorists, but rather it was liberated by his fighters. General Haftar’s forces are in control of the majority of the city, however, some Islamist forces remain. [Reuters, Libya Monitor (subscription), 2/1/2015]
UAE sends three cargo flights of aid for displaced Libyan families
The United Arab Emirates is slated to deliver three cargo planes of much needed assistance supplies to help the more than 2,000 displaced people inside Libya. Among the materials will be food, blankets, and medical supplies. The first of the three airplanes landed on Sunday at Labrak airport. The aid packages come shortly after the Tobruk health minister announced that the country’s medical stockpile was depleted. [Libya Herald, 2/2/2015]
Tunisia bans entry of Libyans with pre-2007 passports
Local reports indicate that the Tunisian border security is no longer accepting Libyan passports from before 2007. Libyan passports, regardless of their validity, will not be admitted if they are the older version from pre-2007. The restriction is for Libyans travelling by air or across the Ras Jedir land crossing into Tunisia. [Libya Monitor (subscription), 2/2/2015]
Tunisian PM-designate proposes new coalition cabinet
Tunisian prime minister-designate Habib Essid proposed a new coalition cabinet on Monday including secularists, Islamists, and smaller parties, after politicians rejected a line-up announced last week as unrepresentative. The new ministers included Nidaa Tounes members and the Islamist Ennahda, which did not have any posts in the earlier cabinet. Nidaa Tounes member Slim Chaker was named finance minister and Taib Baccouche, also from Nidaa Tounes, will be foreign minister. Ennahda was given the employment ministry and several other junior minister posts. Lawmakers will vote this week on whether to ratify the new government. [Reuters, 2/2/2015]
Explosion in central Damascus kills at least six on bus of pilgrims
A bomb tore apart a bus carrying Lebanese Shia pilgrims in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding twenty-four in an attack just outside the Syrian capital’s Old City. The Nusra Front claimed responsibility for what it called a suicide attack. But according to Syrian state television SANA, two bombs were planted on the waiting bus as passengers visited a shrine in the Old City. One bomb failed to detonate and was defused. The Lebanese foreign ministry, Hezbollah, and March 14 bloc denounced on Monday the attack. [NY Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera English, 2/1/2015]
Rebel infighting in Aleppo province
Fighting between the Nusra Front and Western-backed rebels in northern Syria spread from Aleppo province into neighboring Idlib Friday. Clashes began Thursday when the Nusra Front seized positions from the Hazm movement west of Aleppo, threatening one of the few remaining pockets of the non-Islamist insurgency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy fighting overnight focused on the 46th Regiment base in western Aleppo and overlapping areas between Aleppo and Idlib province, where the Nusra Front pushed out rebels from many areas in October. The leader of the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham condemned the infighting, urging the establishment of a neutral court to settle rows. [Naharnet, The Daily Star, 2/2/2015]
ISIS chemical weapons expert killed in airstrike
An Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) chemical weapons expert Abu Malik was killed in a coalition airstrike last week near Mosul, the US Central Command said in a statement on Friday. Abu Malik had been a chemical weapons engineer during the rule of Saddam Hussein and then joined al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2005. “Based on his training and experience, he was judged to be capable of creating harmful and deadly chemical agents,” said a defense official. [Al-Arabiya, Naharnet, 1/31/2015]
Regime airstrikes in Deraa kill twelve
Syrian government airstrikes on an opposition-held town killed at least fifteen civilians in the southern province of Deraa on Monday. “The death toll from four regime air strikes on Jassem in Deraa province has risen to fifteen civilians, while more than twenty-five others were wounded,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strikes come as a major rebel offensive has been underway in southern Syria for months. [The Daily Star, 2/2/2015]
Yemen’s Houthis give parties three days to solve crisis
In the capital, talks have been revolving around either persuading President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi to rescind his resignation or to form a presidential council to run the country for an interim period. However, no deal has been reached and President Hadi has refused to revoke his resignation. Political parties in Yemen, including the Houthis, have spent several days discussing the possibility of forming councils to fill the power vacuum left by Hadi’s resignation until a longer term settlement can be agreed. The Houthis gave the negotiations three days from Sunday to reach a resolution or they will impose one. They also demanded control of major state and security institutions. [Reuters, Al Jazeera, Al Masdar, 2/2/1015]
At least ten killed in attacks by al-Qaeda in Yemen
At least ten people have been killed in Yemen over the past four days in attacks led by an al-Qaeda affiliate against Houthi fighters and the Yemeni army, local officials and the group said. The rise of the Houthis has antagonized Sunni tribesmen and al-Qaeda militants, who regard them as heretics. The attacks targeted soldiers in Ibb, Abyan, and in the southern province of Lahj. [Reuters, 2/1/2015]
Bahrain revokes nationality of seventy-two on security grounds
On Saturday, Bahrain revoked the citizenship of seventy-two individuals from well known Sunni and Shiite families, suggesting the move did not focus solely on the protracted unrest by Bahrain’s Shiite majority. The move aimed “to preserve security and stability and to confront terrorist dangers and challenges, given that some citizens are acting to undermine the interests of the kingdom,” the state news bulletin said. Adding to Bahrain’s crackdown on opposition leaders, Al Arab news agency was shut down less than twenty-four hours after broadcasting an interview with a leader from Al Wefaq. [Gulf News, Reuters, Financial Times, 2/1/2015]
Saudi Arabia frees women’s rights activist
Suad al-Shammari, the cofounder of the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group, was released from jail after spending ninety days at a women’s prison in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and pledging to “reduce her activities.” Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued amnesty for some prisoners late on Thursday. Raif Badawi, the other cofounder of the network, was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, has not been granted amnesty. [AFP, 2/2/2015]
Egypt’s tourism revenues up 27 percent in 2014
According to Egypt’s tourism minister, the country’s tourism revenues in 2014 rose to $7.5 billion from $5.9 billion the previous year, marking a 27 percent increase in revenues from one of the country’s major sectors. The country received 9.9 million tourists in 2014, up from 9.5 million in 2013. Tourist numbers picked up dramatically last summer after several European countries lifted travel warnings against Egypt’s popular Red Sea resorts in the Sinai peninsula. [Reuters, Ahram Online, 2/1/2015]
Moroccan prices of oil products down as of February
The prices of oil products in Morocco, namely diesel oil, premium gasoline, fuel oil n2, fuel oil n2 ONE and special fuel will fall as of February 1, 2015. In a statement, the minister of general affairs and governance announced that the price of diesel oil will decline by 15 cents per liter to reach 7.88 MAD/liter, while the price of premium gasoline will drop by 7 cents per liter to reach 8.91 MAD/liter. [Morocco World News, 1/31/2015]
Libya insurance reports 2014 figures
Libya’s biggest insurer says its provisional 2014 revenues were 19 percent lower than in 2013, accompanied by a sharp increase in costs. A statement from the Libyan Stock Market, on which the Libya Insurance Company (LIC) is listed, said that the firm’s revenues totalled LD124.9 million ($100m) in 2014, compared to revenues of LD159 million ($125m) in the previous year. The figures suggest the company made a pre-tax profit of LD42.2 million ($33.8m). [Libya Monitor, 2/2/2015]
Syria keeps food, electricity subsidies despite war
According to Syria’s prime minister, Syria has kept in place subsidies for electricity and basic foods despite the war. The effort is attributed to an attempt by the regime to drum up support in areas its control. Analysts and officials have warned that the nearly four-year war and international sanction imposed on Syria have set back the country’s economy by more than thirty years. [AFP, 2/2/2015]