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Saturday, July 26, 2014 |
Excerpts: ISIS presence in Egypt overstated: official. Egypt re |
Excerpts: ISIS presence in Egypt overstated: official. Egypt re Erdogan. = Protecting Lebanon against local and foreign threats July 26, 2014 +++Egypt Daily News Saturday26thJuly2014 Egyptian security official says homegrown terrorist organizations are = falsely claiming ISIS ties Armored personnel carriers (APC) of the Egyptian Army patrol on a road clos= to El Gorah in northeastern Sinai, Egypt, 21 May 2013. (EPA) Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat=97Radical Islamist groups in Egypt are claiming ties= the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in a bid to secure funding and = publicity, a senior Egyptian security official told Asharq Al-Awsat. The Egyptian security official, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the = condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to speak to the media, = played down the prospect of ISIS securing a foothold in the country=92s Sin= Peninsula following last week=92s attack on a border checkpoint by suspecte= Islamist gunmen. In a statement distributed online via an ISIS-affiliated Twitter account, a= Islamist group claiming to be ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, = which killed 22 Egyptian Border Guards at the military checkpoint along the = Libyan=96-Egyptian border. The statement led to fears of that ISIS, which has recently announced the = establishment of an Islamic State in territory under its control in Iraq an= Syria, was infiltrating Egyptian territory. However Cairo has dismissed the = claims that ISIS was behind the attack, with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatta= El-Sisi pledging to =93uproot terrorism from every part of Egypt.=94 The Egyptian official informed Asharq Al-Awsat that authorities had traced = the ISIS Twitter account to a different Islamist terrorist group, the = Sinai-based Ansar Bayit Al-Maqdis. The twitter account had previously been = affiliated to Ansar Bayit Al-Maqdis, only to change its profile name and = affiliation after ISIS announced an Islamic State in eastern Iraq and = western Syria. Ansar Beyit Al-Maqdis, which the Egyptian government has said is a front fo= the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, has carried out a number = of attacks on Egyptian security targets and infrastructure, including a = failed assassination attempt against Egyptian Interior Minister Mohammed = Ibrahim. Despite an ISIS pledge to carry out =93ambitious=94 plans in the Middle Eas= North Africa, Egyptian officials are playing down the possibility of the = Islamist militant group finding a foothold in the country, citing strategic = challenges. =93With ISIS fighters operating across a vast geographical area, spanning t= fronts&8212;=97Syria and Iraq=97=97this does not allow it to consider infil= new areas at this time,=94 the Egyptian official told Asharq Al-Awsat. +++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 26 July =9214:=94Egypt summons Turkish envoy aft= Erdogan repeats:Sisi is a =91tyrant=92 =93, Reuters SUBJECT: Egypt re Erdogan QUOTE:=94comments by P.M.Erdogan deemed insulting to the leadership in Cair= FULL TEXT:Egypt summoned the Turkish charge d'affaires on Saturday[26 July] = for the second time in a month to complain about comments by Prime Minister = Tayyip Erdogan deemed insulting to the leadership in Cairo, the Egyptian = Foreign Ministry said. In an interview with broadcaster CNN, Erdogan repeated the phrase that = caused offense last time, calling Egypt's president, former army chief Abde= Fattah al-Sisi, a "tyrant". He also accused Egypt of not being "sincere" = over the Gaza crisis. "The Arab republic of Egypt expresses its deep rejection of the latest = comments made by the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan," the foreign = ministry said. It said Erdogan's comments included "insults to the president and an issuin= of general verdicts that lacked evidence, not objective but based on = personal considerations." Relations between Egypt and Turkey have soured since the Egyptian army last = year ousted the governing Muslim Brotherhood, which Erdogan supports. Last = year, Egypt expelled the Turkish ambassador, accusing him of undermining th= country. Ankara responded in kind. When asked if he still stands by his previous comment that Sisi was an = "illegitimate tyrant", Erdogan said: "Well, he is right now a tyrant, I = don't have any doubts about that," according to a transcript published on = CNN's website. As head of the army, Sisi orchestrated the ouster of elected Islamist = President Mohamed Mursi, a senior member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood = in reaction to protests against him. He resigned from the army to run for election, which he won in a landslide. = The Brotherhood was, by then, a banned group. Cairo has cracked down hard o= Islamists, jailing thousands and killing hundreds of street protesters. On the Palestinian crisis, Erdogan said Egypt "at this moment does not have = a sincere approach to the Palestine issue." Erdogan is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which = Egypt sees as a security threat because it is an offshoot of the = Brotherhood. Egypt had proposed a truce initiative to end the Palestinian-Israeli = fighting that failed, mainly because it was rejected by Hamas, which rules = the Gaza strip that borders Egypt. Foreign ministers from the United States, Europe and the Middle East = including Turkey but not Egypt met in Paris on Saturday[26 July] and called = for an extension of a 12-hour ceasefire. +++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 26 July =9214:=94General Qahwaji ahead of Arm= Day: Military Ready to Protect South, Deploy to Confront Israel=94 SUBJECT: Protecting Lebanon against local and foreign threats QUOTE: =93He also called on officers to =91remain loyal to the nation and a= getting embroiled in sectarian disputes=92 =93 FULL TEXT:Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed on Saturday[26 July] = the military's readiness to protect Lebanon against local and foreign = threats. He emphasized ahead of Army Day that the army is prepared to protect = Lebanon's southern border and deploy to confront Israel. Army Day falls on = August 1. Qahwaji added that the dangerousness of the situation requires diligence in = order to preserve the role of the army and protect Lebanon's =93unique = identity.=94He also called on officers to remain =93loyal to the nation and = avoid getting embroiled in sectarian disputes.=94Furthermore, he hailed the = implementation of the security plan adopted in April in the northern city o= Tripoli, saying that it helped restore calm and stability there. The plan, carried out by the army and security forces, is aimed at cracking = down on armed groups and gunmen that have created instability in Tripoli in = recent years.Dozens of suspects have been arrested, while others remain at = large. A similar plan was adopted in the eastern Bekaa region, while another one = will be carried out in Beirut. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D ________________________________________ Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on A= Website: www.imra.org.il For free regular subscription: For free daily digest subscription: IMRA is now also on Twitter |
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