Egypt and Iran to resume direct flights 4, October 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt, Iran.Tags: Iran and Egypt resume direct flights, Iran Arab relations, Iran Egypt relations, Sadat, Sadat assassination
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Regular direct flights are to be resumed between Iran and Egypt for the first time in 30 years. As the LA Times eloquently notes, this is to some a surprising decision.
The two countries back opposing political camps in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, lack full diplomatic ties and continually snipe at each other. But Iran’s pro-government Fars news agency described the deal and a visit by an Iranian trade delegation to Cairo as “a prelude to the resumption of ties between the two countries.”
Iran clearly seeks any opportunity to eschew the notion that they are isolated by American pressure. They are, therefore, willing to overlook Egypt’s Israeli peace treaty and other significant policy differences in order to make such a strong symbolic statement with the Arab world’s most populace country.
This is not the first time that Iran’s rhetoric has been subjugated to the exigencies of necessity. During the Iran-Iraq war, Iran and Israel had a strategic alliance as they were untied by their fear and mistrust of Iraq. Despite government-led and fostered anti-Semitism, Iran traded spare parts for their armed forces for oil with the ‘evil Zionists’.
The Egyptian half of this is, as far as I see it, more convoluted. The LA Times notes that the agreement came shortly after Egyptian businessman Rami Lakah signed a $1.37 billion deal with Iran’s Kish Airlines. Yet even were this agreement to lead to a wider boost for trade and business, which it surely will, this seems like a small gain given that the price is normalizing relations with a country that celebrates the assassin of Egypt’s former leader, Anwar Sadat. Moreover, what will the Americans think of this deal? The Egyptian economy and state security more generally is significantly bankrolled by American support and Washington will not be pleased to see this softening line.
The Mubarak picture doctoring 20, September 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt.Tags: Al Ahram picture, Al Ahram picture doctored picture, Mubarak, Mubarak Al Ahram picture doctored, Mubarak doctored picture, Mubarak picture
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…as Al Ahram showed the picture…
A classic example of the pathetic state of Middle Eastern newspapers. Not just in terms of their cringworthy desire to please the powers that be but in their stupidity: did they really think that this wouldn’t be found out?
Qatar and Iran to launch satellite 22, March 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Al-Jazeera, Egypt, Iran.Tags: Al Alam banned, Al Alam tv, Egypt, Egypt TV, Iran, Iran and Qatar satellite, Iranian satellite, Nilesat
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MEMRI reports that Iran and Qatar are to launch a satellite together primarily to compete with Egypt’s Nilesat. This stems from a recent decision imposed on Egyptian broadcast networks to stop broadcasting Iran’s Al Alam TV channel to the Arab world. If this venture succeeds (a sizable ‘if’ I’d have thought) Al Alam will once again flood the airwaves smearing Iranian soft power insidiously into the crevices of the Arab World, as Mubarak might put it.
Cairo musings 3, February 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt.Tags: Cairo traffic, Doha Debates
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Tim Sebastian the BBC journalist and host of the Doha Debates has an excellent op ed in the NYT on Cairo and other musings on the Arab world. Good stuff.
Holocaust survivor on hunger strike 29, December 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.Tags: Egypt Gaza border, Gaza, Gaza borders, Holocaust survivor, The Holocaust
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An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor is about to begin a hunger strike to pressure Egyptian authorities to let through Gaza Freedom Marcher participants into Gaza itself. That is an exceedingly powerful gesture.
Egypt v Algeria football riot: Zionist Conspiracy 14, December 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt.add a comment
…but then again, isn’t everything?
(I can’t embed it – go to the ever trustworthy (…) MEMRI for the clip)
What makes this somewhat worse is that it is a former Egyptian Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq that is trotting out this absurd rubbish. His logic is that the US wants to defend Israel so they set the two most powerful Arab nations, Egypt and Algeria (…), against each other to reduce each as a threat. Flawless analysis there.
Algerian players injured after arriving in Cairo 13, November 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt, North Africa.Tags: Algerian footballers attacked, Egypt, Egypt - Algeria football, World Cup
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Algeria’s football team arrived in Cairo to play their crucial World Cup qualifier only to have their bus assaulted with stones. Four players were injured and one had to be taken to hospital. In a PR exercise worthy of Iraq’s Comical Ali, a police spokesperson said that none of the Algerian players had been injured.
There is hugely bad blood between the two football rivals stemming mostly from the infamous 1989 encounter which Egypt won 1-0. After the game there was widespread rioting and a former Algerian footballer blinded Egypt’s team doctor in an assault. Charming.
Update: Via MEI and Sandmonkey, I’ve got a fre updates on all the shenenegans that have been going on:
- There is a football tradition of killing owls in order to jinx your opposing team. It has been relayed to me that an Owl holocaust was started last week and is continuing until this very moment.
- Tamer from the popular TV show el beit beitak went on TV a couple of days ago and informed the egyptian audiences of the Hotel the algerian team will be staying in, and urging the egyptian people to “go there and hang out” until the day of the game.
- Algerian municipality workers have stopped the paperwork for an algerian girl getting married to an egyptian guy, telling her that she can come back for it after saturday’s game.
- Egyptians dying for a ticket to the Game attacked all ticket selling centers in droves today. The Elite Heliopolis Sporting club managed to secure a couple of thosunad tickets to sell to its members, only to have word of this reaching the egyptian population and having hundreds of egyptians storm into the private club to get their hands on tickets. 40 police cars were called to secure the facility.
- Algerian airlines has donated 3000 free tickets to hardcore algerian fans in order not to have their team stand by its lonesome against the cheering might of 80,000 egyptians.
- Algerian hackers hacked the egyptian football association webpage today, and put the Israeli flag on it (??!!!?).
Al Azhar bans the Niquab 10, October 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt, Islam.Tags: Al Azhar, Al Azhar Niqab ban, Egypt terrorist attacks, Niqab, Niqab ban, Sayed Tantawy
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The Islamic World’s oldest, most revered and preeminent seat of higher education has banned women from wearing the Niqab, as pictured above, in their dormitories and in women only classrooms.
The Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawy decided to enforce the ban did as the Niqab is not mandated at all by Islam but is instead only a regional custom. However, there is also the very real and practical result of this ban that female students now have to show their faces to male security guards.
Such a move is unsurprising in security conscious Egypt. One one level, the legion of state security organs are ever vigilant in maintaining Mubarak in power. Keeping a closer eye on their preeminent seat of Islamic learning and preventing it from radicalizing is one aspect of this. Those wearing the Niqab are thought to be – ipso facto – of a more austere and extreme Islamic persuasion. This is not so say that they are necessarily extremists: of course they are not; but those wearing it “tends [sic] to be adopted by the most radical elements” as Dunn puts it. Additionally, Egypt’s vast security apparatus is there to protect Egypt’s economic lifeline – tourism – from debilitating terrorist attacks such as devastating attacks in 1997 in Luxor and in 2005-6 in Shark El Sheikh and in Dahab respectively.
Jewish businessman to buy half of Al Jazeera? 8, October 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Qatar.Tags: Al Jazeera sale, Al-Jazeera, Haim Saban
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Micheal Collins Dunn turns Sherlock Holmes over the rumour that Jewish-Egyptian mogul Haim Saban is seeking to buy a large stake in Al Jazeera. Dunn comments that the notion that strong Jewish supporting tycoon buying Al Jazeera off the Qatari Royal Family sounds anywhere from bizarre to ridiculous (the latter of which being the end of the spectrum at which I stand). A bit of digging and Dunn goes to the source of the story, Egypt’s fairly scurrilous and tabloidish Al Misryyoon. Given the papers penchant for publishing – how to put this – not necessarily 100% corroborated reports and Egypt’s general antipathy towards Qatar these days and there is a perfect recipe for a naughty little story to stir up a bit of trouble.
The nature of oppression 29, September 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt.Tags: Egpyt kidnapping
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There’s an enthralling but unfortunately true story of a kidnapping of a protester on Inanities’ blog in which there is a top-class, sage-like musing on the nature of dictatorships and oppression.
While there are many worse features of dictatorships and oppression, I am always reminded that one of its defining aspects is tedium, and that it involves hours of standing around waiting with that awful mixture of boredom and fear in your chest.
