Hosni Mubarak - Tag Search

With elections for Egypt's People's Assembly, the lower house of parliament, set for this fall, the government has already begun its usual crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist social organization and political party that is banned by law but allowed to operate with a low profile by the government. Following the arrest in February of high-ranking Brothers, police arrested dozens (perhaps hundreds) on Friday and Tuesday at protests.

The Brotherhood won 88 seats in the 454-seat Assembly during landmark elections in 2005. Since then, the leadership of the Brotherhood has changed and signaled less of an interest in electoral politics, but President Hosni Mubarak's approach to the organization has remained the same: Mubarak's government looks like it's in the process of turning the screws on the Brotherhood in the run-up to this year's elections, just as it did in 2005.

Egypt has been awash in rumors about Hosni Mubarak's health ever since the president's gallbladder surgery in Germany on March 6.

One reason: Mubarak hasn't been seen on television. But his office finally released footage today of the president sitting with his doctors. Heidelberg University Hospital says his condition is improving well; Mubarak's chief of staff, Zakariyah Azmi, says the president is in good condition (عربي).

I'm sure this won't quiet all the rumors that Mubarak is really dead/in a coma/etc. -- he didn't hold up a copy of today's newspaper, after all! -- but this video makes him look about as healthy as he did before the operation.

Last post about Hosni Mubarak's gallbladder surgery, I promise, but the Egyptian president has been moved from intensive care (عربي) to the regular wing of Heidelberg University Hospital, and he's apparently well enough to be photographed on the telephone. From today's El-Shorouk:

Feel free to suggest captions in the comments.

The Egyptian president is in stable condition in Heidelberg University Hospital; he's recovering well enough that he's able to sit up and eat yogurt (عربي), according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.

I don't know why, but I have this funny mental image of Mubarak sitting in bed in a well-tailored jacket, with an aide standing by his side, watching bad German daytime television, slowly eating a container of Swiss yogurt and seething about Mohamed ElBaradei.

Hosni Mubarak temporarily handed over power to his prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, while he recovers from gallbladder surgery in Germany.

Mubarak traveled to Germany to meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel -- but also to undergo medical tests (عربي); the 81-year-old Egyptian president complained of recurring stomach pain. Doctors in Heidelberg say the surgery went well, and Mubarak is recovering at Heidelberg University Hospital.

Here's a good sign that the Egyptian government is a bit rattled by Mohamed ElBaradei: The state-run Al-Gomhuria, last seen proudly defending the Gaza barrier, published this cartoon today unveiling Hosni Mubarak's 2011 campaign promises (h/t Arabist).

As you can see, Egypt's future includes nuclear power and clean air. And giant stalks of wheat.

Mohamed ElBaradei issued his first statement in about a week yesterday: A list of proposed electoral reforms (عربي) which he says would ensure the integrity of Egypt's next presidential election -- and, presumably, which serve as prerequisites for an ElBaradei presidential run.

The list (bulleted after the jump) contains the changes ElBaradei has discussed for months in media interviews: end the emergency laws, lift restrictions on presidential candidates, etc. Taken together, they would be a significant overhaul of Egypt's electoral system.

A follow-up to my earlier post on the ElBaradei campaign and political reform: Issandr El Amrani was kind enough to respond via e-mail, and asked if I would post his response here. It's copied in full after the jump.

Issandr El Amrani has a thoughtful essay on his blog about the potential impact of a Mohamed ElBaradei presidential campaign in Egypt. I agree with most of his points -- particularly his observation that some of the ElBaradei criticism is "cynicism, a position that is hardly constructive and offers no solutions" -- but I want to highlight one item that concerns me.

Furthermore, ElBaradei's pseudo-candidacy may have already forced one alternative to a Gamal candidacy in 2011, if this report (عربي) that Hosni Mubarak is likely to run again in 2011 is to be believed.

This "Hosni will run again" talk is catching on: Al-Quds Al-Arabi this morning quotes unnamed Egyptian sources (عربي) who say Hosni will almost certainly run again next year, and will announce his decision publicly after parliamentary elections this autumn.

This is a guest post from Laura Kasinof, a freelance journalist based in Cairo.

A crowd of pro-democracy Egyptians gathered at Cairo International Airport this afternoon to welcome Mohamed ElBaradei -- former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, potential contender in Egypt's next presidential election, and the newest beacon of change for much of the country's liberal opposition movement -- to his home city.

ElBaradei's announcement last December that he will consider running for president in 2011 -- given the stipulation of a free and fair election -- sparked a popular movement in the country in support of an ElBaradei candidacy. In the days leading up his return to Cairo, no one knew whether or not the Egyptian government would allow the predicted "thousands" of ElBaradei supporters to rally together outside the airport in such a public affront to the Mubarak regime.

Seriously. Baradei's Now, Get Elected or ElBaradei Tryin', Take Me Down to Baradei City... I've got nothing.

In any event, in case you haven't heard, the former IAEA chief-slash-possible presidential candidate returns to Egypt for a visit on Friday -- and his countrymen are planning quite the welcome. The Egyptian opposition newspaper Ad-Dustour printed his flight information (عربي; he lands shortly after noon) and reports that thousands of people will gather at Cairo International Airport to welcome him. Supporters are hoping ElBaradei will deliver a quick speech at the airport.

Since we're talking about the Muslim Brotherhood this morning: Shadi Hamid and Amanda Kadlec have a good new POMED paper out on engaging political Islamist movements, like the Brotherhood and Jordan's Islamic Action Front.

The paper traces the unimpressive history of U.S. and European engagement with Islamist groups and offers some policy suggestions. More importantly, it does a good job of explaining why Western governments should engage with Islamists.

The Egyptian government says it arrested more than a dozen members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Monday because they were setting up training camps and "planning a string of attacks" around the country.

That's an absurd claim: The Brotherhood renounced violence 40 years ago, and has not been linked to any attacks in Egypt in decades. And the government, needless to say, has not offered up any evidence to support its allegations.

Egypt's ultra-rural and often aggrieved Sinai Peninsula Bedouin population has long been one of the country's major unreported stories, so it's nice to see Time magazine reporter Abigail Hauslohner making the trek into the sand dunes to cover Bedouin life.

But Hauslohner's story, posted on the Time's Web site today, paints an unnerving picture of a people on the edge of violent revolt. The Bedouins have long been ignored or scorned by the authoritarian central government in Cairo. Lately, according to Hauslohner, they've been raking in cash by controlling the Egyptian side of smuggling tunnels that snake into the Gaza Strip. But with President Hosni Mubarak moving to shut down those tunnels, Hauslohner theorizes, the Bedouin might now get the spark that finally sets them off.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is in for a year of rough economic news, but at least he got a good photo op (عربي) with the Egyptian football team after their African Cup of Nations win, right? Hosni and the Pharaohs. There's a joke in there somewhere. (You can also see Gamal Mubarak standing in the back of the photo.)

Al-Ahram doesn't miss an opportunity to take a shot at the Algerians: It faults the Algerian media for publishing "fabricated news" about the Egyptian team.

I'm crashing on a couple of stories right now, the kind I get paid to write, so this will be a short post. But today is budget day in Washington: President Obama sent his $3.8 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2011 to Congress. (Congress has final say on appropriations, so the budget will change before it's passed into law; Obama's request is just that, a request.)

Included in the voluminous request is a range of foreign aid proposals for countries in the Middle East and South Asia. We've pulled out some of the key figures, after the jump of course.

A couple of weeks ago I promised to write about Muhammad Badie's election as the Muslim Brotherhood's new supreme guide. I never did, mostly because I didn't have anything interesting to say; Evan has already written about the internal drama that surrounded the vote, and I don't think the election has much external significance, despite widely-publicized concerns that Badie (a conservative) will push the group to the right.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak said in an interview that any candidate "who can bring benefit to Egypt and its people" can take part in the 2011 election.

Mubarak did the interview with the official Egyptian police magazine (in honor of Police Day). I can't find the interview online, but Al-Masry Al-Youm (عربي) and Al-Ahram (عربي) both summarize the highlights. The long-serving Mubarak pledged "free and fair" elections that reflect the will of voters.

The final damage from this week's flooding in Egypt could reach LE400 million (عربي), or almost US$75 million.

A parliamentary committee is trying to assess the damage from the floods, which killed at least 15 people in Egypt. The initial estimate: 1,132 homes were completely destroyed, and another 345 damaged; more than 7,000 acres of land submerged; 82 electricity towers knocked down; and more than 13,000 olive, date and citrus trees lost.

Economic damage will run into the hundreds of millions of pounds, much of it from lost productivity in closed factories (LE20 million) and repairs to infrastructure (LE100 million).

The death toll from flooding in Egypt has increased to 15, and heavy rains have shut down much of the country's infrastructure (عربي), including major roads, airports, and the harbor at Alexandria. Thousands of families have been evacuated from Aswan province, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and dozens of people are reported missing on the Sinai Peninsula.

Damage to the Egyptian economy could be severe. Fishermen had to stop working because of the rains; the Nag Hammadi aluminum shelter was shut down, and losses already exceed LE34 million (US$6.3 million). Total damage could run into the billions of pounds, according to Egyptian economists.