WarSclerotic

Egyptian police released the 25-year-old son of former president Mohammed Morsi Wednesday after he spent less than 24 hours in detention on charges of joining an outlawed organization and publishing “fake news.”

Abdullah Morsi Mohammed Morsi, a graduate business student, posted a bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds [about $280] according to a statement by Attorney General Nabil Sadek.

“The Attorney General decided to release Abdullah until further investigations take place into the charges against him,” said Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud, a member of Morsi’s defense team.

Abdullah frequently posts updates on social media about his father’s condition at the Tora maximum security prison, about eight miles south of downtown Cairo, as the family seeks more visitation rights and better health care for the jailed Brotherhood leader.

The London-based Arabi21 website published an interview with Abdullah just days before his arrest detailing the conditions of the family’s September visit at the prison.

Morsi is challenging a death sentence and 48 years in jail for five separate cases including espionage for Hamas, Hezbollah and Qatar as well as insulting Egypt’s judiciary.

The charge of joining a terrorist group refers to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed in 2013. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, an Egyptian general who then became president, led a coalition to remove the elder Morsi from the presidential palace.

Since 2013, the Egyptian army has also waged a fierce counter-terrorism operation against a Sinai-based Islamic State-affiliated group. It has seen an upsurge in attacks on the Coptic Christian community, as well as security personnel and senior officials in the Nile Valley. Last month, Sisi emphasized the need for a “global war” against terrorism during his address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“There is no doubt that the Arab region is one of the most vulnerable to the dangers of nation-state disintegration, and the ensuing creation of a fertile environment for terrorism and exacerbation of sectarian conflicts,” Sisi declared at the UN.

Cairo has been working to contain Islamists throughout Egypt, making no distinction between their political and armed wings.

“Anyone who has anything to do with the Islamic movement can expect to be questioned and other times detained based on their activity within the movement,” an Egyptian political observer close to the Sisi administration told The Media Line.

“Mohammed Morsi supported and promoted the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and beyond—especially in Syria by urging Muslims join a jihad against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sisi ended that and is cleaning up the mess caused by Islamist political groups in Egypt,” the analyst added.

Ibrahim Haj Ibrahim, who heads the Political Science department at Birzeit University in Ramallah, believes the anti-terror rhetoric in Cairo is a core component of a Saudi-led effort, which includes Egypt and the UAE, to gain support for the ongoing boycott of Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood’s chief state backer in the region.

“Saudi Arabia doesn’t want any other regional power, but itself,” Ibrahim told The Media Line. “Riyadh is doing the best it can to put the Muslim Brotherhood in the category of terrorism.”

WASHINGTON – Turkey’s top refiner, Tupras, is in talks with US officials to obtain a waiver allowing it to keep buying Iranian oil after Washington reinstates sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s energy sector in November, industry sources said.

The United States is preparing to impose the new sanctions on Iran’s oil industry after Washington withdrew from a nuclear deal between Tehran and other global powers earlier this year, but is also considering offering waivers to some allies that rely on Iranian supplies.

NATO member Turkey depends heavily on imports to meet its energy needs and neighboring Iran has been one of its main sources of oil because of its proximity, the quality of its crude, and favorable price differentials.

Turkey has already made efforts to cut its purchases ahead of the US sanctions, but would prefer to keep up some level of Iranian oil imports past November, an industry source familiar with the matter said.

“They would like to be able to continue importing 3-4 cargoes a month, like they did during the previous sanctions round. But if the US would tell them to stop, they will oblige and work towards achieving that,” the source said.

A Tupras spokeswoman was not available for comment. Turkey’s Energy Ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Turkey imported around 97,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil in August and 133,000 bpd in September, compared with just over 240,000 bpd in April, tanker tracking and shipping data showed.

And in the first two weeks of October, Turkey has purchased three 1 million barrel-cargoes of Iranian oil – a level that would equate to about 97,000 bpd if it made no other purchases this month.

CASE-BY-CASE

Asked if Washington was negotiating with Turkey for a waiver, a State Department official said the department was prepared to work with countries that are reducing their imports on a case-by-case basis.

On Monday, Brian Hook, the US special representative on Iran, did not comment directly about any talks on waivers with Turkey. But he told reporters countries seeking sanctions relief must “explain their specific and unique circumstances.”

Hook said those conversations were private, but he added the State Department was “trying to advance our national security goals and also taking into account the needs of our allies and partners around the world.”

Refiners around the world are under pressure to avoid Iranian oil purchases because they want to maintain their access to the US financial system – something they could lose if they flout the US sanctions.

Indian refiners also cut imports of Iranian oil purchases last month in a sign they are preparing for November.

Washington’s plan to impose sanctions on Iranian crude could strain already soured ties between the United States and Turkey – at odds over a host of issues from diverging interests in Syria to Ankara’s ambition of buying Russian defense systems.

The release of an American pastor last week who had been in custody in Turkey for two years could signal a thaw in relations between the two NATO allies as Trump said he welcomed an end to the “harsh relationship” the countries had over the summer.

But Turkey has been vocally opposed to the US sanctions on Iran, and has said it will not cut trade ties with Tehran at the behest of other countries.

During 2017, Iran was Turkey’s top crude oil source, accounting for 11.5 million tonnes of its total purchases nearing 26 million tonnes, followed by Iraq and Russia.

WASHINGTON — Chelsea Clinton called Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitism “dangerous” and said laughter in response to it “made my skin crawl.”

Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was reacting on Twitter to a Farrakhan tweet in which the leader of the Nation of Islam said “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-termite.”

“Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, wrong and dangerous,” Clinton tweeted Wednesday, quoting Farrakhan.

Twitter, meantime, said it would not suspend Farrakhan from the site. A BuzzFeed reporter quoted a spokesperson for the company as saying that “Louis Farrakhan’s tweet comparing Jews to termites is not in violation of the company’s policies. The policy on dehumanizing language has not yet been implemented.”

Farrakhan’s tweet posted Tuesday was attached to video of a speech he gave Monday marking the 23rd anniversary of the Million Man March, his 1995 rally advocating empowerment for black men.

“To the members of the Jewish community that don’t like me, thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet because of your fear of what we represent I can go anywhere in the world — I’m not mad at you because you’re so stupid,” he said at the speech in Detroit. “So when they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater — you know what they do — call me an anti-Semite, stop it! I’m anti termite!”

The audience laughed in response.

“The responsive laughter makes my skin crawl,” Clinton said on Twitter. “For everyone who rightly condemned President Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke about immigrants ‘infesting our country,’ this rhetoric should be equally unacceptable to you.”

The reference to Trump appeared to be an appeal to leftists who have been outspoken in denouncing President Donald Trump’s bigotry while remaining silent about Farrakhan. Most prominent among these have been leaders of the Women’s March, including Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez.

Farrakhan has a long history of antisemitism, and Clinton’s parents absorbed some criticism in August for appearing with Farrakhan on a stage at music great Aretha Franklin’s funeral.

Chelsea Clinton took flak on social media for the appearance. At the time, she responded by saying her parents could not control whom Franklin wanted to attend her funeral, that she denounced antisemitism and “I’m not my parents.”

Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish.