Ongoing tensions between Hamas and Egypt – which have seen the popularity of the Iran-backed terror group plummet amid a media blitz conducted by Egyptian security officials – deepened on Monday after a high-ranking Hamas delegation was besieged by protesters outside their Cairo hotel. Arabic media outlets are now suggesting...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Clashes have erupted in Egypt after a series of appointments made by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi triggered renewed fears that Morsi was working to consolidate the authority of hard-line Islamists at the expense of civil liberties and the Egyptian economy. In Luxor the appointment of Adel Asaad Al-Khayat as the new...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

A G8 meeting today between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the Syrian conflict ended without apparent progress. Reuters conveys the mood awkward: Both leaders looked tense and uncomfortable as they addressed reporters after about two hours of talks, with Putin staring mostly at the floor as he...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Egyptian security forces are preparing for anti-Hamas demonstrations. Popular suspicion that the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group may try to bolster the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood against large-scale anti-government protests planned for June 30 has been deepening. Arab-language media is reporting that police authorities are preparing for the backlash. Theories under which Hamas provided...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah today committed his Lebanon-based Shiite terror group to further fighting in Syria: The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group vowed Friday to keep fighting in Syria “wherever needed” and said his Shiite Muslim group has made a “calculated” decision to defend the Syrian regime no matter what the...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

The Egyptian military is attempting to restore calm in the wake of tensions between Cairo and Ethiopia concerning Addis Ababa’s announced intention to build a giant dam on the Nile. Egyptian military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali said today that the situation “is not currently a military matter” adding that it...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

In the latest signs of growing extremism and intolerance in the Arab world’s most populous state, an teacher in Egypt has been fined for blasphemy and an Egyptian-German author critical of radicalism has gone into hiding in Europe. The teacher, a Coptic Christian, was fined this week 100,000 Egyptian pounds –...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Hamas officials are scrambling to shore up ties with Iran, which have been strained by the role that Iran and its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah have been playing in bolstering the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria: “I cannot say the relationship with Iran was severed, but it was affected,” Salah...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Many of Egypt’s leading artists and intellectuals are demanding the removal of the country’s newly appointed minister of culture. Their concerns revolve around, among other things, the perception that Alaa Abdel-Aziz is attempting to destroy Egypt’s culture: The intellectuals, including writers and artists, also released a handwritten statement, condemning the...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle

Resort cities in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula are being overrun by swarms of locusts. Efforts to stem the invasion have been hampered due to a crippling shortage of diesel fuel, one of many commodities which have been impacted by Egypt’s spiraling economic decline. Crisis managers need the diesel fuel to power...

Continue Reading >>
  • Kindle