Tag: zionism

Mubarak’s culture minister draws fire over Israel remarks

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AFP:

Dozens of Egyptian writers on Sunday condemned Culture Minister Faruq Hosni, a candidate to head UNESCO, for saying in an Israeli newspaper interview that he was prepared to visit the Jewish state.
The interview itself angered a group of 26 intellectuals, authors and poets, who consider Israel “the enemy” almost three decades after Egypt signed the first Arab peace treaty with Israel.
“Granting an interview to an Israeli paper is a form of normalisation with the enemy,” they said in a statement, adding that having Hosni at the head of UNESCO “will not be an honour for Egyptians and Arabs.”
The minister’s remarks amounted to a “humiliating surrender to Israeli demands for the sake of personal gain,” the signatories charged.

Victory for opposition on gas export deals

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the Daily News Egypt:

Bowing to pressure from the opposition, Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy announced Sunday that the government will revise its natural gas export prices and will not sign new exportation contracts until the end of 2010.
Since the latest energy price hikes kicked-in this year, experts and opposition members have been calling on Fahmy to amend the prices on all existing gas contracts, saying Egypt’s rate is below the current international market prices.
Several opposition parties have also opposed the idea of exporting gas to Israel as a matter of principle.
“We will review prices of natural gas in all agreements without any exception,” Fahmy said on Sunday.
Although in his statements the minister did not specifically focus on the gas agreement with Israel, government newspapers reported that Sunday’s PA session was devoted to debating this specific deal.
According to Abdallah Helmy, coordinator of the popular campaign to prevent Egyptian gas exports, who was present at the session, the government has reached a consensus that “we don’t have enough gas to sign any new export deals.”

Kefaya organized a demo in front of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, to denounce Mubarak's foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel's war on Lebanon. Demonstrators demanded the expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Cairo. Photo by Nasser Nouri ​, 6 August 2006​