As you may have noticed I've not been giving daily updates on Egypt. In part that is because there's a lot of other things going on at the moment as the UK tries to hold it's post-G8 de-brief sessions which events in Egypt have significantly disrupted. Mainly though it's because with Ramadan taking place not much has actually happened in Egypt over the past few days. The Muslim Brotherhood continue to hold their protest in Cairo's Nasr city but it has failed to attract the numbers that the Brotherhood were hoping for. More importantly the protest has remained confined to Nasr city so there have been no major outbreaks of violence beyond the general collapse of law and order in the country.
On Friday (12/7/13) the United Nations (UN) expressed concern about the continued detention of Mohamed Morsi and others and this concern was echoed by the German Foreign Ministry. Rather than being calls for Morsi's release let alone his reinstatement as President these statements simply reflect a general unease at the practice of arbitrary detention. While I think everybody agrees that Morsi's continued detention is justified under the circumstances the UN wouldn't be doing it's job if it didn't at least question the practice. Germany's call seemed specifically intended to antagonise the US over its initial reticence in supporting the Egyptian revolution. This seems to have had the desired affect because after apologetically confirming that it agrees with the German position in response to a reporters question ("We do agree" was the exact quote from the ruffled State Department spokeswoman) the US confirmed on Saturday (13/7/13) that it will be going ahead with the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt. In a further sign of support the US today announced that it is sending the Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns to Egypt for a two day visit beginning on Monday. With the Secretary of State John Kerry being unavailable due to his wife's illness Burns is the most high ranking diplomat the US can send.
On Saturday (13/7/13) Egypt's public prosecutor moved to dispel international concerns about arbitrary detention by announcing that it is investigating Mohamed Morsi and other members of the Muslim Brotherhood including Mohammed Badie and Khairat El-Shater on allegations of inciting violence, espionage and financial corruption relating to the misuse of government funds. As is standard practice in Egypt the investigator will conduct a preliminary investigation before deciding whether to file formal charges. On the allegation of inciting violence it is highly likely that charges will be filed because Morsi's final address to the nation alone should be enough to convict him. The espionage allegation seems equally well supported because Egypt defines espionage as "Communicating with others to the detriment Egyptian security" those others don't need to be foreigners so even Morsi and Badie conspiring with each other to incite violence would be enough to support the charge. As always the allegations of financial corruption are more complicated but seem to relate to the economic disaster that was Morsi's one year in power. The investigation is set to determine whether this the result of massive incompetence or a more deliberate attempt by the Brotherhood to use the wealth of the nation to enrich themselves. The freezing of the assets of 14 members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom & Justice Party is simply to stop potential evidence in that investigation being destroyed.
On the political level Hazem el-Beblawi has been sworn in as interim Prime Minister and Mohammed ElBaradei has been sworn in as his deputy. There are also rumour and counter-rumour swirling about who will be given posts in the government of national unity. Although there are too many for me to comment on individually especially as some of them are untrue to in order keep up with them I am now following the Egypt Independent on Twitter. They were chosen because it was the first English language Egyptian news outlet that Google spat out. I may diversify later but in the meantime try not to panic.
One government appointment that has been confirmed is that of Nabil Fahmy to the post of interim Foreign Minister. Holding a Bsc in Maths and Physics Fahmy is clearly highly intelligent. Also as a career diplomat who served as Egypt's Ambassador at large since 2008 he is highly experienced in the world of both international and domestic politics. His time as an Ambassador to the UN, along with stints in Japan and the US will serve him and the nation especially well because as with ElBaradei the fact that people already know him means they will find it easier to trust him.
My only concern is that he is a member of the AlDostour party which is headed by ElBaradei. As ElBaradei is now the interim deputy Prime Minister this creates a risk that the AlDostour party will be over represented in the government of national unity. However AlDoustour is clearly the party that has attracted the most intelligent and professional of Egypt's secularists and Egypt does really need to streamline the number of secular parties ahead of the upcoming elections. Forcing them to form new alliances and mergers as part of the government of national unity may well be the way to do just that.
17:20 on 14/7/13.
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