The United States is concerned about Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s decision to assume sweeping powers, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. Mursi on Thursday issued a decree that puts his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament is elected, causing angry protests by his opponents and violent clashes in central Cairo and other…
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s decision to assume sweeping powers caused fury amongst his opponents and prompted violent clashes in central Cairo and other cities on Friday. Police fired tear gas near Cairo’s Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, where thousands demanded Mursi quit and accused him of launching a “coup”….
An already strained relationship between Egypt’s emerging new democracy and the United States, its biggest financial supporter, was put to its first major test following the recent explosion of violence in Gaza. Each side’s expectations of the other ran high after Israel launched a bombing offensive in Gaza in retaliation for rockets launched from there…
Gaza’s Hamas movement wanted a showdown with Israel because its leaders are high on something called the Arab Spring and competing to become martyrs to the Palestinian cause. Or, from another perspective, cynical Israeli politicians think a Gaza offensive will be a walkover that will assure re-election in January and at the same time provide…
The defiance of Gaza’s armed struggle bombards the senses in the city streets. Shrieks of outgoing rockets from downtown launch pads receive an encore of whistling youths, honking horns and celebratory calls of “God is Great” from mosque loudspeakers. Martial songs blare “Strike Tel Aviv!” from one of the few cars daring to chance the…
Thousands gathered in Egyptian cities on Friday to protest against Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip as Egypt’s president vowed to support the enclave’s people in the face of “blatant aggression”. Western governments are watching Egypt’s response to the attacks for signs of a more assertive stance towards Israel since an Islamist came to…
Egypt opened a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy in Gaza on Friday, but hopes for even a brief ceasefire while its prime minister was inside the bombarded enclave to talk to leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement were immediately dashed. A rocket fired from Gaza landed in the sea near Tel Aviv after alarms…
President Barack Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday and reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right to self-defense in light of rocket attacks from Gaza, the White House said. Obama spoke to the leaders about the rocket attacks being launched from Gaza into Israel and the escalating…
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