MENASource

Top News: New US Ambassador Deborah Kay Jones Arrives in Tripoli

Nine months after the Benghazi murder of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues in the assault on the American consulate, the new US ambassador Deborah Kay Jones arrived in Tripoli Wednesday.

Top News: Azhar Chief: Opposing Rulers is not a Sin; Salafi Sheikh Issues Fatwa Permitting Killing of Protesters

Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb warned members of different Islamist groups against accusing their opponents of blasphemy on Wednesday. In a statement, al-Tayyeb said that al-Azhar, Egypt’s core Islamic institution, calls for agreement between different factions and warns against violence and attacking others’ religious beliefs. GOVERNMENT & OPPOSITION Brotherhood’s FJP condemns violent protests over new […]

America and the Democratic Transition in Egypt

By Ziad Bahaa-Eldin

I happened to be spending a few days in New York and Washington DC for work, immediately after an Egyptian court sentenced a number of defendants to prison among them a number of Americans in the so-called "NGO Funding Trial", in which foreign NGOs were accused of illegally funding and supporting Egyptian NGOs during the […]

Top News: Eight Governorates Say ‘No’ to New Governors

President Mohamed Morsi’s gubernatorial reshuffle has sparked protests and sit-ins in at least eight governorates. Protests against the Morsi appointees have so far been reported in Menoufiya, Gharbiya, Damietta, Beheira, Alexandria, Tanta, Mahalla, and Qalyubia.  GOVERNMENT & OPPOSITION Egypt presidency will deal ‘wisely’ with opposition protests The Egyptian presidency is committed to dealing ‘wisely’ with […]

Top News: G8 Urges Syria Peace Talks but No Mention of Assad

Differences between Russia and the West mean an international peace conference on Syria is now unlikely before August, a source at a meeting of Group of Eight leaders said on Tuesday.

Morsi’s Cheap Win on Syria

By Sarah Grebowski

It is a peculiar day for the Arab world when a political leader is accused of pandering simultaneously to the interests of the United States and ultraconservative sheikhs calling for global jihad. But strange bedfellows were made when Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi recently announced that Egypt would be “definitively” severing all diplomatic ties with the […]

Top News: Interior Minister: Islamists Should Not Protest on June 30

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim called on Islamists not to stage any protests on June 30, as clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi would be tantamount to a “furnace of war.” Ibrahim also called on secular forces not to protest on June 21, a day on which Islamists have planned protests.

Lawlessness Engulfs Sinai’s Bedouins

By Sarah El-Rashidi

Following the Egyptian revolution in January 2011 a nationwide security vacuum has caused great unrest, particularly in the rugged Sinai Peninsula. Sinai’s geographic location bordering Israel and Palestine and its indigenous Bedouin population are the primary concern given the area’s influence on regional and national security. The lack of security in the mountainous desert terrain […]