RAMALLAH — A convoy of boats laden with humanitarian goods and accompanied by hundreds of journalists, human rights activists and European parliamentarians, is due to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza at the end of May. The Free Gaza movement’s "Freedom Flotilla" will see three cargo ships and five passenger boats with about 600 people …
Continue reading “Egypt, Hamas Complicit in Israel’s Gaza Blockade”
Updated at 5:59 p.m. EST, April, 4, 2010
The worst attack so far this year took place in Baghdad leaving hundreds dead or wounded. At least 55 Iraqis were killed and 320 more were wounded there and across the country. Some of the casualties from the Baghdad blasts may have been foreign personnel, but reports suggests otherwise. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was quick to tentatively blame al-Qaeda. Meanwhile, casualty figures climbed in March due to the national elections, but if attacks continue, April figures could be even higher.
CAIRO – Activists and opposition groups are stepping up pressure on the Egyptian government to stop constructing a barrier along the border with the Gaza Strip. Officials say the barrier will prevent cross-border smuggling, but critics say it will seal the fate of the people on the Gaza Strip. "The Egyptian border was the only …
Continue reading “Opposition Grows Against Egypt-Gaza Barrier”
Something odd, almost bizarre, is going on in Egypt these days. About 1,400 activists from all over the world gathered there on their way to the Gaza Strip. On the anniversary of the "Cast Lead" War, they intended to participate in a nonviolent demonstration against the ongoing blockade, which makes the lives of 1.5 million …
Continue reading “The Iron Wall”
CAIRO — The specter of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for the Middle East haunted the U.S.- Egyptian summit this week. In the run-up to President Hosni Mubarak’s first Washington visit in five years, both the Egyptian leader and his senior aides categorically rejected an undeclared U.S. offer to guarantee defense of the region against atomic …
Continue reading “Egypt Rejects US Nuclear Umbrella”
At least one Iraqis was killed and eight more were injured in light violence. A U.S. soldier was killed in an explosion near Samawa as well. Another U.S. soldier was wounded in an I.E.D attack in Baghdad. Meanwhile, Egypt has named its first ambassador to Iraq in four years.
Charles Peña on Obama in Cairo
President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo to the Muslim world marked a welcome departure from the Bush administration’s confrontational approach. Yet many Arabs and Muslims have expressed frustration that he failed to use this opportunity to call on the autocratic Saudi and Egyptian leaders with whom he had visited on his Middle Eastern trip to …
Continue reading “How Not to Support Democracy in the Middle East”
CAIRO, Jun 5 (IPS) — Egyptian officials are lining up to praise U.S. President Barack Obama’s address to the Islamic world delivered in Cairo Thursday. But local campaigners for political reform say the speech was disappointingly light on the issues of democracy and human rights. "Obama spoke very briefly and in very general terms on …
Continue reading “Egyptians: ‘Obama Talks Democracy, Endorses Dictatorship’”
Mohammed al-Sheikh Yousef could save his eyesight if only he could cross the border out of Gaza. He was denied a permit by Israel; he got one from Egypt, but not for someone to accompany him. And he can’t go on his own, because he cannot see very well. "If Mohammed does not get out …
Continue reading “Gazans Desperate for Medical Care Denied” 
