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Egypt withdraws annual financial support for Jewish community

Egypt Independent — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:50:00 +0000

Egypt has revoked annual grants of LE100,000 (US$14,000) allocated by former President Hosni Mubarak to the Jewish community in the country, an Egyptian cabinet official said Wednesday.

Mubarak supported the Jewish community through a confidential measure in the budget, head of the central department for financial and administrative affairs Soad Mekky said during a meeting for the Shura Council's Human Rights committee on the state budget, as reported by Anadolu Turkish news agency. Mubarak secretly allotted the sum to the Jewish community starting in 1988, she added.

The annual grant was apportioned to the Jewish community from 1988 to 2012, Mekki said. The grant was suspended in 2003 under former Minister of Social Affairs Amina al-Gendy, but was later reinstated upon her request.

Egypt had a flourishing Jewish community of more than 50,000 in the first half of the 20th century. Some say that there are now less than 200 Egyptian Jews still living in the country.

Syria opposition to mull peace talks

AFP — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:41:00 +0000

Syria's main opposition group gathers Thursday for a landmark conference in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss peace talks with the regime, as rebels on the ground suffer a massive army onslaught.

The National Coalition's fresh round of talks is set to run for three days.

It is the opposition group's first meeting since the United States and Russia announced a peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2 to end the two-year conflict that has killed more than 90,000 people.

The meeting comes a day after backers of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad gathered in Amman to push forward Geneva 2, which would bring rebels and regime representatives in mid-June to the negotiating table.

In their closing statement early Thursday, the Friends of Syria group told Assad to commit to peace, warning that they would boost their backing of the opposition if he failed to negotiate a political transition.

The opposition's agenda for Istanbul is packed with controversial questions, and whether the group can make a final decision on Geneva 2 remains doubtful, opponents say.

It is under pressure from its international backers to enter talks with the Assad regime, but if it complies risks losing what little legitimacy it has left on the ground.

"The Coalition and (key opposition movement) the Syrian National Council have made clear their condition to any talks is the resignation of Bashar al-Assad," Coalition member Samir Nashar told AFP.

"I think the revolutionaries would turn their back totally on the political opposition" should this condition remain unfulfilled, he added.

Former opposition leader and prominent Coalition member Abdel Basset Sayda insisted Assad's departure was still a precondition for any talks.

"All political crises end with a political solution, but the question for us is what kind of solution is acceptable," Sayda told AFP.

Opponents "maintain our position that there will be no negotiation with the regime that does not come with the fall of Assad".

Assad appears as far as ever from giving up, however: in an interview with an Argentinian newspaper this month, he implied that he would stay until the next scheduled election in 2014.

The Istanbul meeting comes as rebels in the central Syrian town of Qusayr face a massive onslaught by the army and elite Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah troops.

"The regime and its backers are trying to change the situation on the ground militarily, in order to gain the upper hand in negotiations," Nashar said.

"That's why Hezbollah and Iran are intervening in such an open way. Again, this is costing the Syrians blood."

On Wednesday, acting Coalition chief George Sabra called on rebels across Syria to "rush to the rescue" of Qusayr, and appealed to the international community to set up a humanitarian corridor to the embattled town.

At the Amman meeting, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Assad to commit to peace ahead of talks.

Kerry said that "in the event that we can't find that way forward, in the event that the Assad regime is unwilling to negotiate... in good faith, we will also talk about our continued support and our growing support for the opposition".

His British counterpart William Hague said that only Assad's departure could clear the way for a settlement.

The aim of Geneva 2, Hague stressed, would be to agree on the formation of "a transitional government with full executive authority, formed on the basis of mutual consent."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius agreed.

"There are some conditions and in particular conditions about participation, which must be representative and which must not include countries which are against success," he said, an apparent allusion to Assad ally Iran.

Sabra, for the Coalition, only received a last-minute invitation to Amman. He was due back in Istanbul in time for Thursday's talks.

The opposition has other difficult issues on its agenda. Dissidents aim to name a new Coalition president to replace Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, who resigned in March, as well as three new vice-presidents and a new secretary-general, a Coalition official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The opposition is seeking to establish a rebel government under interim prime minister Ghassan Hitto, while discussing the group's expansion to include 31 new members, the source added.

That expansion comes after pressures for a more inclusive opposition from Coalition backers, he added.

Hitto has pulled together a list of ministries and representatives for all but the interior and defence portfolios -- but his proposals may not even see the light as he too may end up being replaced, the official said.

Egypt to boost fuel supply to ease power shortages

Reuters — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:34:00 +0000

The Egyptian government said on Wednesday it would supply more gas and diesel to power stations to deal with electricity shortages that have worsened in recent months after the cash-strapped country failed to import enough fuel.

The government has set aside $200 million to finance the additional petroleum products and is in the process of approving an additional $525m, the cabinet said in a statement.

Facing a budget and currency crisis, Egypt has been struggling to pay for food and fuel imports. Last month it received $5 billion in financial support from Qatar and Libya. Qatar also agreed to supply gas to Egypt as needed.

The government decided to increase the amount of gas for electricity generation by 9.1 percent to 84m cubic meters a day from June 1. It also plans to increase the supply of diesel by 29 percent to 22,000 tons a day.

The strain on the power grid will increase in the next few months as temperatures rise and air conditioning units are turned on across the country of 82m people.

In March, the petroleum ministry blamed power cuts on the state-run electricity sector’s inability to secure funds for imported fuels. But fears of severe summer power shortages have eased in recent weeks because of the Qatari and Libyan support.

“It won’t be the serious shortages that people were anticipating a few months ago before they got a $5bn influx of foreign exchange,” a senior U.S. diplomat said.

Special female police unit to combat violence against women

Al-Masry Al-Youm — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

The head of Egypt's National Council for Women Mervat al-Tallawy met Wednesday with members of a new special unit of female police officers formed by the Interior Ministry to combat violence against women.

Tallawy praised the Interior Minister’s decision to form such a special force during a meeting with the Interior Minister’s Assistant for Human Rights Hussain Fikry, officials from the ministry’s community outreach department, and four female officers from the force.

“This is a positive step towards addressing this growing phenomenon,” she said. “We thank the ministry for responding to our request to form this unit.”

Fikry said that the meeting would mark the beginning of close collaboration with the National Council for Women, adding that the ministry is reforming itself to better serve citizens.

He explained that each team of 10 qualified officers in the special unit would be concerned with cases of sexual harassment as well as all other forms of violence against women, and provide psychological support to the victims of such violence.

“We will issue a periodical bulletin to inform the public of our efforts,” he said.

Sexual harassment and violence against women has been highlighted in the Egyptian media recently, particularly after a series of brutal sexual assaults on female protesters and activists during protests sparked by the second anniversary of the January 25 Revolution.

The National Council for Women had repeatedly called on all state institutions to work towards ending violations against women’s rights, and had specifically requested that the Interior Ministry take action against the perpetrators of violence against women.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm