CAIRO: Egypt’s president expressed his displeasure over recent online postings urging him to step down because of how he is handling the country’s troubled economy, saying he is “upset” over the posts.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in angry, televised remarks on Saturday that the postings were inappropriate and that he has been working hard to pluck Egypt out of its economic crisis.
The #El-Sisi_leave hashtag surfaced this summer following steep price hikes for fuel, drinking water and electricity as part of austerity measures designed to overhaul the economy, still recovering from years of turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising against longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
El-Sisi was first elected in 2014, a year after he, as defense minister, led the military’s ouster of Muhammad Mursi, an Islamist who was freely elected but whose one year in office proved divisive.
The general-turned-president has since taking office launched multibillion-dollar infrastructure, development and housing projects that he says will transform the country of some 94 million people.
He has also overseen the largest crackdown on dissent in Egypt’s recent history, jailing thousands of Islamists as well as some secular pro-democracy activists, and rolled back many of the freedoms won following the 2011 uprising.
In March, El-Sisi won a second, four-year term, after running virtually unopposed.
“They have pushed us into being a nation of poverty, a nation of neediness, but when I begin working toward getting us out of this, I find the hashtag #El-Sisi — leave,” he said. “Should I have been upset or not? I was upset. I was upset.”
El-Sisi has in the past told Egyptians not to listen to anyone but him and repeated that he would only listen to viewpoints different from his if they are based on thorough research.
In his latest remarks, El-Sisi also repeated his frequent assertions about unnamed parties tirelessly working to undermine and destabilize the country.
Egypt, he warned, would not survive another “revolutionary” phase like that of 2011.
“Everything is linked to stability and security. I want us to develop an acute fear of instability,” he said.
Along with the economic challenges, Egypt also faces an insurgency by militants in northern Sinai.
Along with battling militants in the peninsula, security forces also struggle to secure the porous borders with neighboring Libya and Sudan, used by militants to smuggle weapons and fighters into Egypt and for cross-border attacks.
Egyptian president Sisi ‘upset’ over online calls for resignation
Egyptian president Sisi ‘upset’ over online calls for resignation
Turkiye says will fight terror after death of Iraqi border guards
“It is clear that the PKK terrorist organization poses a threat to the national security of Turkiye and Iraq“
ISTANBUL: Turkiye vowed on Saturday to work closely with Iraq to secure their common frontier after two Iraqi border guards were killed in a shooting blamed on outlawed PKK militants.
On Friday, Iraq’s interior ministry said the two Iraqi guards were killed near the Turkish border in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
“When the Iraqi border forces were carrying out their duties securing the Iraqi-Turkish border, they were fired at by terrorists from the banned PKK organization” in Zakho district, the ministry said.
A third guard was wounded, it added.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, has several outposts in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said on X that “we are deeply saddened by the deaths of two border guards as a result of the attack carried out by the PKK terrorist organization.”
“It is clear that the PKK terrorist organization poses a threat to the national security of Turkiye and Iraq and violates Iraq’s sovereignty,” he said.
“We will continue to fight together with Iraq against terrorism.”
The attack comes ahead of a planned visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Baghdad on Sunday.
Israel delays withdrawal from Lebanon’s southern border
- Army Command urges residents to avoid returning to their homes
- Residents vowed on Saturday to return to their villages, despite an Israeli decision to postpone the withdrawal of its forces
BEIRUT: Lebanese Army Command on Saturday urged residents of southern border villages to avoid returning to their homes due to mines and other explosives left by Israeli forces.
The “procrastination in the withdrawal” of Israeli forces from the south has complicated the army’s deployment to the area, it said.
The 60-day period for the full withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the southern border area ends on Sunday.
The deadline was stipulated in a ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel, which invaded the Lebanese southern border area on Oct. 1.
Residents vowed on Saturday to return to their villages, despite an Israeli decision to postpone the withdrawal of its forces.
Israel blamed the Lebanese state for failing to “fully enforce” the agreement, and threatened to “retaliate with a military escalation against any Hezbollah response” to the delay.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement that the gradual withdrawal will continue, “in full coordination with the US administration.”
Lebanon’s new leadership views the Israeli withdrawal as a priority.
Army Command called on citizens to “remain responsible and adhere to its directives and the instructions of the deployed military units, to preserve their safety.”
President Joseph Aoun received a phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, his media office said.
“Macron went over the developments in southern Lebanon, the efforts to control escalation, and the appropriate solutions to ensure the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, and the measures to defuse the situation,” a statement added.
The French president told his Lebanese counterpart that he is holding talks to maintain the ceasefire and complete the implementation of the agreement.
Aoun highlighted the need to pressure Israel into implementing the provisions of the deal.
This would put end to its successive violations, notably the destruction of villages near the southern border and the leveling of lands, which will hinder the return of residents, Aoun said.
Ghassan Hasbani, a member of the Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc, said: “The renewal of war is not the current concern, but rather the prolonged presence of the Israeli army in the south.
“It is Hezbollah that brought the Israeli army into Lebanon, and what will drive it out is adherence to the terms of the ceasefire agreement and international pressure,” he added.
Hasbani spoke of “deliberate or inadvertent tardiness in implementing the ceasefire agreement, whether through the delay in forming the monitoring committee or Hezbollah’s failure to seriously hand over its weapons and dismantle its infrastructure.
“We are not justifying the Israeli army’s continued presence in the south but have called for its withdrawal from the first day. We would have preferred to avoid causing its entry in the first place,” he said.
The Israeli army continued its violations of the ceasefire agreement on Saturday in the eastern sector of the border.
Earth mounds were raised to prevent citizens from advancing toward the area where Israeli forces are carrying out detonations and leveling additional structures and homes.
The Israeli measures included the closure of main and secondary roads leading to the town of Kfar Kila from the towns of Burj Al-Muluk and Deir Mimas. Additionally, the northern entrance to the town of Yaroun was bulldozed, and the roads and secondary intersections leading to the villages of Bani Hayyan, Talloussah, Houla and Aitaroun were plowed.
Israeli media reported: “The Israeli army is on high alert, with the northern command, air forces, and operations division of the general staff preparing for a range of scenarios should Hezbollah and civilians attempt to return to their homes on Sunday, and challenge the Israeli military.”
Israeli jets conducted aerial incursions over the southern region, flying at medium altitude.
Residents of southern Lebanese border villages have continuously been warned by Israel to avoid returning to their homes.
Several residents in the south received phone calls from international numbers, cautioning them to avoid traveling to the frontline villages on Sunday and urging them to stay away from the southern region.
Military units of the Lebanese Army continued engineering surveys, road clearing and the handling of unexploded ordnance in the western and central sectors.
Army Command said it is “closely monitoring the operational situation, particularly regarding the violations of the agreement and assaults on Lebanon’s sovereignty, in addition to the destruction of infrastructure and the demolition, and burning of homes in the border villages by the Israeli enemy.”
A team from the Lebanese Red Cross and Lebanese Civil Defense continued to search for the bodies of Hezbollah fighters in the towns of Al-Jabain and Shihin.
The Israeli army raised an earthen berm in the middle of the road leading to the town of Qantara in the Marjeyoun district.
A citizen of the town was shot in the hand by Israeli forces and taken to hospital.
UNIFIL forces delivered a message to the commander of the Southern Litani sector in the Lebanese Army, Brig. Gen. Edgar Lawandos, pledging to provide support.
In an unprecedented move concerning Palestinian camps, Lebanese Army Command announced the takeover of “military centers previously occupied by Palestinian organizations inside Lebanese territory.”
The army conducted surprise raids at the entrance of the Burj Al-Barajneh camp in the southern suburbs of Beirut and proceeded to remove unauthorized commercial structures.
Forces also seized a former center of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and two former centers of the Fatah Al-Intifada organization, near the Beddawi refugee camp in Tripoli.
The army also seized weapons and ammunition, in addition to military equipment and surveillance devices.
It is “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates the dismantling of all illegal military installations, starting from south of the Litani,” a statement said.
“These missions are part of the framework for maintaining security and stability, and extending the authority of the state across various regions of Lebanon.”
Lebanese army units took control of all military points at the entrances of the Beddawi camp since early morning, amid a significant deployment of troops in the area.
Crowds cheer, families hug as Palestinian prisoners released
- Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cheered and waved the national flag, as they welcomed dozens of prisoners released by Israel
RAMALLAH: Azzam Al-Shallalta dropped to his knees and wept at his mother’s feet as he arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah with other Palestinian prisoners released under the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday.
A jubilant crowd carried Shallalta on their shoulders from the bus that brought him from jail, the freed prisoner still wearing his grey prison tracksuit.
“My situation was heartbreaking, truly heartbreaking. We pray to God to free all our brothers we’ve left behind,” he told the crowd, his head shaved and his face pale and thin under a long red beard.
“I can’t describe the feeling — just hearing the news that I would be released was overwhelming,” he said while shaking hands with well-wishers.
Around him Palestinians cheered and waved the national flag, as they welcomed dozens of prisoners who arrived in buses.
Hundreds waited in the local sports center where the prisoners were dropped off for a short health checkup, while hundreds more watched on from the surrounding hills as fireworks went off.
Israel said it released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in exchange for four Israeli women soldiers held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 2023 attack which sparked the war.
Not all of the prisoners were bused to Ramallah. Sixteen were taken to Gaza, while 70 were sent via Egypt into exile in Algeria, Tunisia or Turkiye.
A total of 121 of the prisoners released had been serving life sentences.
Tareq Yahya, another freed prisoner, spoke with emotion as he stepped off the bus into the crowd.
“It’s amazing how much love our people have shown us, how they’ve stood by us and expressed their solidarity,” the 31-year-old from the northern West Bank city of Jenin said.
Looking through the crowd, Yahya searched for relatives, finding none.
“It seems, based on the situation in Jenin, they weren’t able to make it,” he said, referring to an ongoing Israeli military operation in the city.
“I’ll try to find them, though.”
Thinking of the other prisoners who will be released in the coming weeks in exchange for Gaza hostages, Yahya said the ceasefire’s guarantors “need to set strong conditions to prevent the beatings, humiliation and mistreatment the jailers have inflicted on us in these last days before our release.”
Maisa Abu Bakr, 33, came early with her family to see her uncle Yasser Abu Bakr, whose name was on the list of those to be released this week.
She said they avidly followed the news “on Telegram and TV, and we were ready, wearing our (best) clothes, waiting for the time to get out and come here.”
Yasser Abu Bakr had been in jail since 2002 serving multiple life sentences.
“When the lists were published, we saw his name and we were surprised because we didn’t expect that he would be freed.”
Others were not so lucky, like the family of Sadiqi Al-Zaro, 65, who made the time-consuming journey from the southern West Bank city of Hebron through multiple Israeli checkpoints to Ramallah.
Zaro’s nephew Tareq told AFP the family had come after receiving a phone call from an Israeli intelligence officer who said he would be among those released on Saturday.
“We were shocked when the official lists were announced and his name wasn’t included,” he said.
The procedures for clearing prisoners for release are opaque and the final list was not released until a few hours before the buses arrived.
“There have been a lot of issues since the beginning of this prisoner release process. It’s been difficult for families to get clear confirmation,” Tareq Al-Zaro said, his cousins nodding in agreement.
He said he was still hoping for his uncle’s release after 24 years in prison.
“We’re leaving this in God’s hands. We came here based on a phone call, and God willing, he’ll be released based on an official announcement.”
30 killed in drone attack on hospital in Sudan’s Darfur
- Bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building
PORT SUDAN: A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region killed 30 people and injured dozens, a medical source said Saturday.
The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s emergency building, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.
It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.
They have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.
Last week, they issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and allies leave the city by Wednesday afternoon in advance of an expected offensive.
Local activists have reported intermittent fighting since, including repeated artillery fire from the RSF on the famine-hit Abu Shouk displacement camp.
On Friday morning alone, heavy shelling killed eight people in the camp, according to civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees.
The United Nations has voiced alarm, calling on both parties to ensure the protection of the city’s civilian population — some two million people.
“The people of El-Fasher have suffered so much already from many months of senseless violence and brutal violations and abuses, particularly in the course of the prolonged siege of their city,” United Nations rights office spokesman Seif Magango said Wednesday.
France in communication to maintain Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, Lebanese statement citing Macron says
- Aoun asked Macron to oblige Israel to implement the agreement to preserve stability
CAIRO: French President Emmanuel Macron told his new Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun in a phone call that he is in communication to maintain the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, according to a statement by the Lebanese President’s office on X.
Aoun asked Macron to oblige Israel to implement the agreement to preserve stability.
The phone call comes after the Israeli army on Saturday warned residents of dozens of Lebanese villages near the border against returning until further notice, a day after Israel said its forces would remain in south Lebanon beyond a Sunday deadline for their departure under the US-brokered ceasefire that ended last year’s war.
