Today Egypt has mainly been coping with the funerals of those killed in the confrontation outside Cairo's Republican Guard HQ.
In slightly worrying news the Muslim Brotherhood have overnight rejected
the timetable for fresh elections presented by interim President
Mansour on Monday (8/7/13) as an illegitimate declaration of the
illegitimate President of the "Putchists." Old Soviet words aside I
think this really sums up the Brotherhood's attitude towards democracy -
They're only in favour of it as long as they're winning.
In slightly better news for the nation both Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) have made pledges of financial support. The UAE have
pledged a total USD3bn made up a USD1bn grant to the central bank
followed by a possible USD2bn interest free loan to the central bank
both of which will allow Egypt to support its own currency - the
Egyptian Pound. Saudi Arabia has been more generous pledging a total of
USD5bn million made of USD1bn in cash dollars which allows Egypt to
trade on the international market. They have also offered USD2billion to
the central bank and USD2billion is "energy products" which essentially
means gasoline.
Although both offers come with strings attached they will be a relief to
Egypt's interim military rulers. That is because of despite Article 121
of his own constitution Mohamed Morsi managed to run up around USD20bn
of debt in his one year in office. This has left Egypt with
approximately 3 months (October 2013) of foreign currency (US Dollars)
reserves. Although running out of foreign currency will not in any way
affect Egypt's ability to pay salaries it will prevent it importing
foreign goods such as gasoline raising the prospect of Zimbabwe style
run-away inflation.
The main political development of the day is that President Mansour has
dropped the idea of appointing the Social Democrat Party (SDP) leader
Ziad Bahaa el-Din as interim Prime Minister with Mohammed ElBaradei
acting as his deputy. Instead he today announced Hazem el-Beblawi as the
interim Prime Minister with Mohammed ElBaradei acting as his deputy.
Again I feel that el-Beblawi is a strong candidate for interim Prime
Minister because his background in law certainly gives him an
understanding of the ethical and technical issues required to build a
democratic society. His PHD in economics certainly qualifies him to
tackle Egypt's pressing economic problems. Therefore if this was a US
Presidential election I would say el-Beblawi and ElBaradei most
certainly make up a winning ticket.
One of el-Beblawi's first acts as nominee was to offer seats in the
government of national unity to the Muslim Brotherhood in a clear effort
to garner their support for his nomination. So far the Brotherhood have
yet to respond but I am opposed to this sort of offer because to my
mind it goes against the principle of an inclusive government of
national unity and looks set to plunge Egypt into further trouble.
In the meantime the Salafist al-Nour Party have announced that they
support el-Beblawi's nomination but remain unconvinced by ElBaradei's
nomination. As al-Nour have already withdrawn from the government of
national unity I'm a little confused as to why their opinion has been
sort at all.
A possible explanation may be a mortar attack on a police (CSF) base in
the Sinai this evening. Although Sinai is most certainly bandit country
where anything can happen I feel this was a Salafist attack intended to
curry favour amongst Egypt's population by reminding them of all the
help the Islamists have given to the Palestinians. While I cannot speak
for the people of Gaza I think this is a complete lie because through
things like Operation Pillars of Cloud since Morsi took over I've only
seen things get worse and worse in a now nearly bankrupt Palestine.
(Originall Posted) 23:45 on 9/7/13.
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