The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Egypt at "dangerous stalemate" in political crisis
- Czech PM loses confidence vote, chances of early election grow
- Dutch embassy in Yemen was potential terror target - Foreign Minister
| Egypt at "dangerous stalemate" in political crisis Posted: CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's political crisis entered a tense new phase on Wednesday after international mediation efforts collapsed and the army-installed government repeated its threat to take action against supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi. Both sides called their supporters on to the streets on Thursday, while Mursi supporters in two protest camps in Cairo strengthened sandbag-and-brick barricades in readiness for any action by security forces. Acting President Adli Mansour, in a message on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, said Egypt was now in critical circumstances. The interim government would press on with its own plan to hold new elections in nine months time, he said. "The train of the future has departed, and everyone must realise the moment and catch up with it, and whoever fails to realise this moment must take responsibility for their decision," he said. U.S. envoy Nicholas Burns made his way home after days of trying to broker a compromise between the government and Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood. European Union envoy Bernardino Leon stayed on in the capital in the slim hope of reviving the effort. But Brussels and Washington said they were very concerned that the Egyptian parties had not found a way to break what they called a dangerous stalemate. "This remains a very fragile situation, which holds not only the risk of more bloodshed and polarization in Egypt, but also impedes the economic recovery which is so essential for Egypt's successful transition," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a joint statement. The army ousted the Islamist Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, on July 3 after huge street demonstrations against his rule. Mursi and leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood have been rounded up and detained. But thousands of their supporters have demonstrated to demand his reinstatement. Almost 300 people have been killed in political violence since the overthrow, including 80 Mursi supporters shot dead by security forces in a single incident on July 27. Mansour earlier on Wednesday blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the breakdown of the international mediation effort, and for any violence that might result. Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said the government's decision to dismantle the protest camps was final and its patience had nearly expired. Beblawi accused protesters of inciting violence, blocking roads and detaining citizens, and he warned that any further violence would be met "with utmost force and decisiveness." People should leave the camps now, Beblawi said. Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad, asked about the threat, told Reuters: "This means they are preparing for an even bigger massacre. They should be sending us positive signals, not live bullets." PEACE AT EID? On Wednesday afternoon, people streamed into the camp outside Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in northeast Cairo, where demonstrators have built barricades and armed themselves with sticks and rocks. Many were women and children. "We will not leave until we get Mursi back," said Salma Imam, 19, student at Al-Azhar university. "It's not a government, the real government was chosen by the Egyptian people one year ago. This is not a legal government." Any action could still be some time away, however. Egyptians celebrate Eid, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, from Thursday to Sunday, an inauspicious time for any act of violence. And Egypt's leading Islamic authority on Wednesday announced plans to host talks on the crisis after Eid, which might also forestall an assault by the security forces. "There are some initiatives that can be built upon to start national reconciliation," an al-Azhar official told the state news agency MENA. Mursi's downfall was driven by fears he was trying to establish an Islamist autocracy, coupled with a failure to ease economic hardships afflicting most of Egypt's 84 million people. The army says it was acting at the behest of the people and has lain out its own transition plan for new elections, a move rejected by the Brotherhood. Hamdeen Sabahi, a leftist who came third in last year's presidential election, said the Islamists were in a state of denial about what had happened. "The Muslim Brotherhood must accept the will of the people. I can't imagine any political solution," he said in a radio interview. Pro-Mursi parties and leftists who backed his removal called rival demonstrations for Thursday, making the public holiday a potential flashpoint. The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, which includes the Brotherhood, urged Mursi supporters to take to the streets for an "Eid of Victory". The leftist Popular Current party called for public Eid prayers in Tahrir Square, centre of the 2011 uprising that ousted long-ruling strongman Hosni Mubarak and set in train the current political drama. Egypt is the Arab world's largest country, a bulwark in the United States' Middle East policy, and maintains an uneasy peace with Israel. Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, one of a host of foreign officials who have visited Cairo as the crisis unfolded, said he saw the confrontation worsening. "More people will turn to the streets to protest and the tendency in the armed forces to repress that will mount," he told Reuters. "So I think there's a need to be worried about the next days and weeks," he said. |
| Czech PM loses confidence vote, chances of early election grow Posted: PRAGUE (Reuters) - The new Czech cabinet formed by allies of leftist President Milos Zeman lost a confidence vote on Wednesday in a split vote that made it likely the country will hold an early election before the end of the year, possibly as soon as October. Zeman appointed his long-term supporter, economist Jiri Rusnok, in June, bypassing political parties that had proposed other options and accused Zeman of usurping powers that belong to parliament. The government, which initially had no party support, gradually gained backing thanks to Zeman's influence over left-leaning factions and only narrowly lost the vote, 93 to 100. Zeman, who won the country's first direct presidential election in January, said he would keep Rusnok in charge for at least several weeks. Rusnok said he would resign but will stay in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed or an election is held. The centre-right camp had argued that it had the right to form a government because it held a majority of parliamentary votes with 101. But Wednesday's vote showed disunity in the faction after several of its deputies decided at the last minute to walk out and not participate in the vote. The conservative TOP09 party immediately joined earlier calls by the main leftist parties and Zeman to hold an early election. "The parliamentary club of TOP09... decided that it will support early elections," the faction's chief Petr Gazdik said. Markets have largely ignored the political standoff, as the country has kept its deficits under control, beating its self-imposed targets despite recession. Debt is at half the EU average and debt yields are by far the lowest in central Europe. The crisis clouds the outlook for the 2014 budget, in which the past and current cabinets planned to ease cutbacks to help revive an economy that has been in recession since 2011. Rusnok's government had already dismissed senior ministry officials and the heads of the state railways, one of the country's largest employers, steps that were strongly criticised across the political spectrum. Rusnok and ministers have also said they would consider changes at supervisory boards of other state and semi-state companies, including electricity firm CEZ. Opinion polls show that the centre-left Social Democrats are likely to win early polls by a double-digit margin. "Our estimate is that ... an election could be held in October this year," said Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka. (Additonal reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) |
| Dutch embassy in Yemen was potential terror target - Foreign Minister Posted: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands has extended the closure of its embassy in Sana'a and pulled all diplomatic staff out of Yemen because its mission was a potential target of a terror attack, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said in a statement on Wednesday. The decision was based on information from various intelligence agencies that several Western countries, including the Netherlands, were potential targets of a planned terror attack, a foreign ministry spokesman added. Yemen's government said on Wednesday it had foiled a plot by al Qaeda to seize two major oil and gas export terminals and a provincial capital in the east of the country. The United States recently issued a warning of potential attacks by militants and shut its diplomatic missions across the Middle East and Africa. Several Western countries, including the Netherlands, closed their embassies in Yemen temporarily because of security concerns. (Reporting by Sara Webb and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Will Waterman) |
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