WarSclerotic

Obama: US not backing any Egyptian party or group | The Times of Israel.

( Whether true or not, does anybody believe anything coming out of the Obama administration anymore? – JW )

White House statement rejects ‘false claims’ to the contrary, reiterates commitment to democracy and demands an end to violence

US President Barack Obama delivers a speech in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin Wednesday, June 19 (photo credit: AP/Markus Schreiber)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Saturday reiterated that the US is not aligned with and is not supporting any particular Egyptian political party or group and again condemned the ongoing violence across Egypt.

Obama made those points during a telephone conference with the National Security Council about developments in Egypt, according to a statement issued by the White House. He was spending the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

“The United States categorically rejects the false claims propagated by some in Egypt that we are working with specific political parties or movements to dictate how Egypt’s transition should proceed,” the White House statement said. “We remain committed to the Egyptian people and their aspirations for democracy, economy opportunity and dignity. But the future path of Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people.”

The White House statement repeated key assertions Obama and other US officials have made since the Egyptian military ousted the democratically elected president of Egypt, calling for an inclusive process allowing for all groups and parties to participate, urging all Egyptian leaders to condemn the use of force and to prevent further violence, and urging demonstrators to conduct themselves peacefully.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke again Saturday to Egypt’s defense minister, emphasizing the need for a peaceful civilian transition in Egypt and noting “the importance of security for the Egyptian people, Egypt’s neighbors and the region,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

Hagel also spoke to Crown Prince bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates on Saturday to discuss Egypt and “matters of mutual security concern in the Middle East,” Pentagon press secretary George Little said in the statement.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been in touch hourly with the US ambassador to Egypt, Anne W. Patterson, and has spoken in the last two days to officials in the region, the State Department said in a statement.

“Secretary Kerry also reaffirmed US support for democracy and the protection of universal human rights for all Egyptians, reform that meets the legitimate aspirations of the people, and respect for the rule of law,” according to the statement. “He stressed that the United States wants to see Egypt’s civilian transition succeed, and that the United States will do all it can to help encourage that effort.”

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Syrian Islamists express doubts about democracy after Morsi ouster | JPost | Israel News.

Operation Sinai: Egyptian army destroys 40 terror tunnels – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Egypt reports air force to take on significant role in war on terror in Sinai, where several attacks were executed during past few days. Senior military official claims 40 terror tunnels were destroyed

Roi Kais

The relative calm in Sinai was violated while Mohamed Morsi was ousted from the Egyptian rule, yet the Egyptian army claims it does not intend on leaving the peninsula to terrorists.

Egyptian newspaper Al Gomhuria reported Sunday morning that the army, which carried out a coup following massive protests against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, is interested in conducting a widespread operation in Sinai, where several terrorist attacks were carried our during the weekend. Another report read that in the past few days, more than 40 terrorist tunnels were destroyed.

State TV and witnesses reported that an explosion occurred in Sinai in an Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Jordan. This was reported following attacks on several security checkpoints in the past few days. It is still unclear who is behind the explosion in the pipeline, which has been attacked more than 10 times since former autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings.

The violent clashes reached the Sinai Peninsula and the area of Rafah, where terrorists fired rockets at a police station in the vicinity of the Gaza-Israel border Thursday night. Fire was also targeted at the El Arish International Airport and three military checkpoints. Due to the events, the Rafah crossing was closed by the military.

The escalation resulted in an additional significant victim, when gunmen shot dead a Coptic Christian priest in northern Sinai on Saturday in what could be the first sectarian attack since the military overthrow.

It was further reported by Al Gomhuria that the planned operation in Sinai will also include a significant role by the Egyptian air force. A source quoted by the paper said that the army has proposed the idea to ousted president Morsi, but he rejected it and insisted that the operation would be carried out on land only. According to the same source, there is a consensus among army chiefs in regards to the execution of the operation.

The source was also asked about the possibility of Israel objecting to the operation, and said: “The matter in general is not related to Israel, but to the national security of Egypt. There is no will above the Egyptian people’s will, which is worried about the situation in Sinai. It is the same people that sacrificed a lot for Sinai.”

Meanwhile, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk quoted a senior military official who claimed that the Egyptian army has already started an operation in northern Sinai in coordination with the Interior Ministry in order to remove armed jihadists entrenched in the mountains. He claimed that further details about the operation will be revealed in the next few days.

According to him, “the military forces were deployed intensively in the Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid border regions, an area with extremist organizations’ strongholds. In addition, the engineering corps destroyed more than 40 tunnels in order to prevent the infiltration of terrorists into Sinai.”

Despite the military’s attempts to restore order in Sinai, it was reported early Sunday morning that four Egyptian army checkpoints were attacked in the city of Sheikh Zuweid, probably by the same extremist organizations. The Egyptian army fired back at the source of fire. No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, the political turmoil in Egypt continues. The Presidential Office Spokesperson said at a televised press conference late Saturday night that a prime minister has yet to be designated, after it was reported earlier Saturday by state newspaper Al-Ahram that Interim President Adly Mansour had tasked Opposition Leader Mohamed Elbaradei in charge of forming the transitional government.

The spokesperson further added that the Muslim Brotherhood movement will be allowed to participate in the upcoming elections.

It is estimated that following the objection of the Salafi Al-Nour party, the Presidential Office withdrew the decision to appoint Elbaradei. Al-Nur, which supported the ousting of Morsi, announced it opposes the appointment of Elbaradei. The party’s deputy leader Ahmed Khalil said that his party will cease collaborating with the interim government if Elbaradei will head it: “His appointment violates the outline on which the political camps agreed on with the army’s Chief of Staff General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.”

Clueless US mediator – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: Kerry pressuring Israel to make dangerous concessions for the sake of negotiations that will lead nowhere

Hagai Segal

Even the New York Times expressed bewilderment over the energy John Kerry is currently investing in trying to set up a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas. Egypt is in flames, Syria is burying its dead by the thousands, but Kerry wants to bring peace to “tranquil Tel Aviv,” as reported by the influential American newspaper.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, once a stark symbol and source of grievance in the Arab world, is now almost a sideshow in a Middle East consumed by sectarian strife (and) economic misery… And yet Mr. Kerry, backed by Mr. Obama, still believes that tackling the problem is worth the effort,” The New York Times said.

In the few months since he entered office, the American secretary of state has visited the region more times that his predecessor Hillary Clinton had during her entire term. Seemingly, this has to do with Kerry’s personal scheduling problems, but actually the frequency of his visits is indicative of a severe problem on a federal level.

The vast amount of energy Kerry is investing in an attempt to conquer the Sisyphean challenges here is placing American foreign policy in a ridiculous light. The US cannot make peace between Arabs and other Arabs, yet it believes it can make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Washington has repeatedly failed to grasp the situation in Egypt and Syria, but thinks it has a good understanding of the situation in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Is it possible that John Kerry is more talented than all the American mediators who came before him? Not at all. He exposed his ignorance in Middle Eastern affairs when, as a senior senator, he insisted on welcoming Assad back into the family of nations, met with the Syrian leader twice in Damascus and showered him with compliments. Kerry’s mediation skills are limited to pressuring Israel to make dangerous concessions for the sake of negotiations that will lead nowhere. He lacks the intellectual and diplomatic ability to devise a permanent agreement that will satisfy both sides. He is a blind proponent of an impossible vision and is his own candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Should a miracle occur and Kerry succeeds in establishing a Palestinian state, it will quickly turn into a new Syria or – in the best case scenario – a new Egypt. This has already happened in Gaza after we withdrew with America’s encouragement. It will undoubtedly happen in Ramallah as well. In light of the breakneck pace of the Arab Spring, it is not at all certain that Kerry will win the prize before the Arab Spring reaches Palestine.

Yadlin: Civil war in Egypt is unlikely | JPost | Israel News.

‘Hezbollah supporters urge leadership: Stop sending our sons to die in Syria’ | JPost | Israel News.

Egyptian presidency says Muslim Brotherhood can contest elections – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

Following the ouster of Egypt’s president Mohammed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood movement can take part in new elections, a spokesman from the interim presidency said on Saturday.

The group, which Mursi hails from, has been protesting nationwide since the removal of the president on Wednesday and has vowed further protests.

Seen as an effort to calm tensions and diffuse protests which have turned deadly in recent days, the presidency spokesman said the nation was “extending a hand” to the Brotherhood.

“We extend our hand to everyone, everyone is a part of this nation,” the spokesman told reporters, according to Reuters. “The Muslim Brotherhood has plenty of opportunities to run for all elections including the coming presidential elections or the ones to follow.”

Meanwhile, the military says it has a political roadmap to guide the country to new elections following its removal of Mursi, but has yet to set a date.

Egyptian activists on Saturday circulated an online video showing what appeared to be Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohammad Mursi throwing two young men off a building during clashes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

On Friday, clashes between opponents and supporters of Mursi flared in Egypt, killing at least 46 people nationwide, with the heaviest death toll registered in Alexandria.

Obama frowns on Egyptian army’s alignment with Gulf regimes, coming crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian army on alert in El Arish, Sinai

After US Secretary of State John Kerry was filmed vacationing on his yacht at the peak of the Egyptian crisis, President Barack Obama released this statement early Sunday, July 7: “The US is not aligned with and is not supporting any particular Egyptian political party or group and condemns “ongoing violence across Egypt.”  Obama made these points in a telephone conference with the National Security Council from Camp David.
To further rebut US media criticism, the administration reported that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had spoken three times with Egypt’s Defense Minister Abdel Fattah El-Sisi about the military coup which deposed Mohamed Morsi on July 3, to demand the expeditious reinstatement of civilian rule.

Nothing was said about the general’s response. The military has along denied staging a coup, insisting it only stepped in to avert civil bloodshed and a provisional government would prepare the country for early elections.
Both parties to this exchange were putting on an act. For President Obama, the Muslim Brothers’ ouster was and remains unacceptable. By denying support for any particular party or group, he was also saying he wants no truck with the generals who made it happen.
It was also evident that Gen. El-Sisi rejected Hagel’s demand.
Indeed, the army chief is determined not to let Washington interfere with his next moves, realizing that the Muslim Brotherhood’s president dismissal was but the first step in a process which must be followed up if it is not to implode in chaos.

At least another six months are needed for the rewriting of the constitution, installing a working interim administration and setting up elections for the presidency and parliament. In that time, Egypt will be on a knife’s edge. debkafile’s Middle East sources report the army chief plans two steps for cutting through the tension, in the knowledge that the first, at least, will be strongly censured by Washington:
1. The Muslim Brotherhood’s top leadership was more or less decapitated when the army seized power Wednesday, July 3. Next, the generals plan to send security forces to fan out across the country for mass arrests of thousands of local activists. They will be confined in detention centers already in preparation.
By this action, Gen. El-Sisi will be treading in the footsteps of Gemal Abdul Nasser in the fifties and Anwar Sadat in the seventies. Those rulers kept thousands of Muslim Brotherhood national and field operatives in pirson and under tight control for years before gradually letting them out on condition they did not run for office.
The army chief, while bracing for Washington’s condemnation, is also assured of approval by the Gulf rulers led by the Saudi royal house.
Likewise, if the US cuts off or reduces military aid to Egypt, currently running at $1.3 billion a year, the Egyptian strongman has Gulf guarantees to make up the difference.
Cairo’s post-coup military rulers are therefore squaring up for a major collision with Washington, which would also encompass their backers, the conservative pro-West Arab governments of the Persian Gulf.

At the same time, say our Middle East sources, Gen. El-Sisis is looking to the long term. He believes that his alignment with the Gulf will eventually lead to back to an understanding with the United States, although he will have to ride out the initial rift with the Obama administration.

2. The second step he plans is a crackdown on the estimated 10,000 armed Salafists, some of them working for al Qaeda, who have made Sinai their stamping ground.
debkafile’s military sources recall that as a past military intelligence chief, later commander of Egyptian forces in Sinai, Gen. El-Sisi is thoroughly acquainted with the terrain and conditions of the peninsula.

Our intelligence sources disclose that the generals in Cairo now believe the Muslim Brotherhood regime deliberately turned a blind eye in the past year to the massive flow of weapons smuggled in from Libya into Sinai and onto the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The Brotherhood, it appears, had been quietly accumulating an arsenal for the contingency of its downfall by setting up a clandestine armed “Center of Revolt” for resistance operations against any takeover of rule in Cairo.

This Center of Revolt has set up a coalition with the armed Islamist gangs terrorizing Sinai. This was confirmed in the last 24 hours by Salafist statements, such as: “Sinai is the center of revolt against the military coup which deposed Mohamed Morsi as president.”
The generals realize the urgency of cutting down this Islamist terrorist-backed revolt before it spreads out of control to Cairo and the Suez cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismailia – not to mention the threat of sabotage to the international cargo and oil shipping traffic passing through the Suez Canal.

Since Friday, the first attacks have been ongoing on Egyptian military targets in Sinai, leaving five officers and a Coptic priest dead. Early Sunday, Salafist Bedouin blew up the Sinai gas pipeline to Jordan. Sabotage of the pipeline stopped after Egypt discontinued supplies to Israel.

On this second step by the Egyptian military, the Obama administration faces a serious dilemma: On the one hand, the United States can hardly object to a major Egyptian military crackdown on Salafist terrorist groups which work hand in glove with al Qaeda and the Palestinian Hamas.

On the other, in order to succeed, the Egyptian army must destroy the weapons caches the Muslim Brotherhood hoarded in Sinai. This would further weaken the movement after its loss of rule in Cairo.
Another problem for the US president is that in Sinai, Egyptian and Israeli security interests undeniably converge.

Full-scale Egyptian military operations in Sinai are dependent on Israel’s consent under the demilitarization clauses of their 1979 peace treaty. They would also be welcomed by Jerusalem which kept anti-terrorist forces parked on the Egyptian border from the time that the Muslim Brotherhood came to power a year ago.

The crackdown on Islamist terrorists in Sinai will bring the collaboration between Egypt’s military rulers and Israel out in the open and further complicate the Obama administration’s stance in relation to the new regime in Cairo.

Source: ElBaradei to be named Egyptian interim PM | JPost | Israel News.

Nigeria: Islamic Militants Attack School, Killing 30.

( The latest from the “religion of peace.” – JW )

By ADAMU ADAMU and MICHELLE FAUL 07/06/13 12:14 PM ET

POTISKUM, Nigeria — Islamic militants attacked a boarding school before dawn Saturday, dousing a dormitory in fuel and lighting it ablaze as students slept, survivors said. At least 30 people were killed in the deadliest attack yet on schools in Nigeria’s embattled northeast.

Authorities blamed the violence on Boko Haram, a radical group whose name means “Western education is sacrilege.” The militants have been behind a series of recent attacks on schools in the region, including one in which gunmen opened fire on children taking exams in a classroom.

“We were sleeping when we heard gunshots. When I woke up, someone was pointing a gun at me,” Musa Hassan, 15, told The Associated Press of the assault on Government Secondary School in Mamudo village in Yobe state.

He put his arm up in defense, and suffered a gunshot that blew off all four fingers on his right hand, the one he uses to write. His life was spared when the militants moved on after shooting him.

Hassan recalled how the gunmen came armed with jerry cans of fuel that they used to torch the school’s administrative block and one of the dormitories.

“They burned the children alive,” he said, the horror showing in his wide eyes.

He and teachers at the morgue said dozens of children from the 1,200-student school escaped into the bush but have not been seen since.

On Saturday, at the morgue of Potiskum General Hospital, a few miles (kilometers) from the scene of the attack, parents screamed in anguish as they attempted to identify the victims, many charred beyond recognition. Some parents do not know if their children survived or died.

Farmer Malam Abdullahi found the bodies of two of his sons, a 10-year-old shot in the back as he apparently tried to run away, and a 12-year-old shot in the chest.

“The gunmen are attacking schools and there is no protection for students despite all the soldiers,” he said as he wept over the two corpses. He said he is withdrawing his three remaining sons from another school.

Islamic militants from Boko Haram and breakaway groups have killed more than 1,600 civilians in suicide bombings and other attacks since 2010, according to an Associated Press count.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 and deployed thousands of troops to halt the insurgency, acknowledging that militants had taken control of some towns and villages.

Saturday’s attack killed 29 students and English teacher Mohammed Musa, who was shot in the chest, according to another teacher, Ibrahim Abdu.

Police officers who arrived after the gunmen left and transported the bodies to the hospital confirmed at least 30 people were killed.

Boko Haram, whose stronghold is 230 kilometers (143 miles) away in Maiduguri city, capital of neighboring Borno state, has been behind scores of attacks on schools in the past year.

On Thursday, gunmen went to the home of a primary school headmaster and gunned down his entire family. Witnesses said they attacked at 7 a.m. as the owner of the private Godiya Nursery and Primary School was preparing to leave his home in the town of Biu, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Maiduguri.

Resident Anjikwi Bala told the AP that Hassan Godiya, his wife and four children all were killed.

He said the assassins, suspected Boko Haram fighters, got away.

People from Yobe state this week appealed for the military to restore cell phone service in the area under a state of emergency, saying it could have helped avert a June 16 attack on a school that the military said killed seven students, two teachers, two soldiers and two extremists in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state.

Residents told the AP that they had noticed suspicious movements of strangers and could have alerted soldiers and police, if their cell phones were working. Instead, the military said they were involved in a five-hour shootout before the militants fled.

A day later, June 17, extremists fired on students sitting at their desks as they were writing exams in Maiduguri, killing at least nine pupils.

Borno state officials say more than 20,000 people have fled to Cameroon in recent weeks amid the violence.

The military has claimed success in regaining control of the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. However, the area covers some 155,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) or one-sixth of the sprawling country. The rebellion poses the biggest threat in years to security in Africa’s biggest oil producer.

Soldiers say they have killed and arrested hundreds of fighters. But the crackdown, including attacks with fighter jets and helicopter gunships on militant camps, appears to have driven the extremists into rocky mountains with caves, from which they emerge to attack schools and markets.

The militants have increasingly targeted civilians, including health workers on vaccination campaigns, traders, teachers and government workers.

Farmers have been driven from their land by the extremists and by military roadblocks, raising the specter of a food shortage to add to the woes of a people already hampered by a dusk-to-dawn curfew and the military’s shutdown of cell phone service and ban on using satellite telephones.

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Faul reported from Lagos, Nigeria. Associated Press writer Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, contributed to this report.