The Financial Times quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Mohamed El Dahshan on Egypt’s increased crackdown on militants in the country:
It is unclear whether placing civilian facilities such as power stations, gas lines, petroleum fields, railways, roads and bridges under military authority will prevent attacks like those on Friday, which were carried out in daylight on military targets in the already heavily militarised Sinai.
“The decree has nothing to do with security,” said Mohamed el-Dahshan, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East centre of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank. “We’re talking about a military-influenced and driven government that essentially swears by power, authority and allegiance. Their perspective of governing entails full control of information, but also of potential dissent.”