On the surface, the public-relations campaign was straightforward. Ever since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, regime figures have trumpeted that the Egyptian uprising was following the model of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. So when the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi was finally confirmed as Egyptian President on Sunday, it was natural that he and the Brotherhood should be welcomed as Tehran's partner..
On Monday morning, the Iranian military took the lead on the effort. Commanders proclaimed that Iranian strength would support the emerging Egypt, an example of how US and Israeli efforts to control the region had failed. Fars, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, headlined that it had an interview with Morsi, in which the President-elect had called for better relations with the Islamic Republic as part of a new "strategic balance".
2055 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Egyptian Front). Back to today's running story of the Revolutionary Guards' PR offensive to prove Iran's alliance with Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi (see 1025 GMT).
Rivals within the establishment, namely State news agency IRNA, may have denounced the interview of Morsi by Fars, linked to the Guards, as a fake; however, that has not stopped the website. Tonight, its English-language edition features no less than five stories based on the alleged discussion with Morsi.
To throw the election to [Ahmad] Shafiq, who clearly lost by almost a million votes, would have produced an outpouring of anger and possible violence that the military must have concluded it could not control. It did not matter, though. Declaring Shafiq the winner despite the results was wholly unnecessary due to what the military clearly believes is its ace: the June 17 constitutional declaration.
The timing of the decree, just as polls closed on the second day of the second round of elections, suggests that the military’s action was improvised. As if sometime on Sunday afternoon, one of the officers turned to another and asked with alarm, “What if Morsi wins?” It was anything but ad hoc, however.
Shortly after the fall of Mubarak, Field Marshal Tantawi asked for a translation of Turkey’s 1982 constitution, which both endows Turkish officers with wide-ranging powers to police the political arena and curtails the power of civilian leaders. In the June 17 decree, the military hedged against a Morsi victory by approximating the tutelary role the Turkish military enjoyed until recently. As a result, President Morsi does not control the budget; has no foreign policy, defense, or national security function; and has been stripped of the president’s duty as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, meaning he has no control over military personnel. In addition, having dissolved parliament in a move that has no legal basis, the SCAF now also functions as Egypt’s legislature. Finally, the military will be able to veto articles of a new constitution.
2015 GMT:Egypt. President-elect Mohamed Morsi has given a televised speech in which he has thanked the "martyrs" of the uprising against the Mubarak regime, saluted the people, and thanked the army, police, and judiciary for their service to Egypt.
Meanwhile, an officer "close to the ruling military council" has put out a message to Morsi, "The onus now is on the new President to unite the nation and create a true coalition of political and revolutionary forces to rebuild the country economically and politically...."The challenge for Egypt now is rebuilding its institutions and ensuring that these institutions are independent and work for the people, not a single party or movement."
The officer also upheld the legitimacy of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, "The military council has done its duty in keeping the election process free and fair, a true example of democracy, to the world."
1948 GMT:Syria. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria claim 51 people have died at the hands of security forces today, including 15 in the Damascus suburbs and 12 in Homs Province.
1639 GMT:Syria. Claimed footage of Syrian forces dragging away two unarmed women:
2055 GMT:Yemen. Government official says insurgents have abandoned one of the last cities that they have held in the south for more than a year.
The Ansar al-Sharia fighters pulled out of Azzan in Shabwa Province in the face of bombardments and airstrikes in a US-backed Government offensive.
2030 GMT:Syria. Ahmed Bahaddou, a video journalist working for The Associated Press, has been wounded while filming clashes between insurgents and regime forces in northern Syria.
Bahaddou, a Belgian citizen, was struck in the shoulder and evacuated to London. He is in stable condition.
Egypt's Presidential Candidate Ahmed Shafiq1328 GMT:Egypt. Amnesty International has condemned a new decree that would allow the military to arrest civilians, seemingly without cause. While the decree, passed Wednesday, was subject to Parliamentary vote, after Thursday's Supreme Court decisions, there is no Parliament, which would seem to leave the decree unchallengeable. Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui released this statement:
The end of Egypt's long-standing state of emergency was an opportunity for the authorities to end decades of abuses that have corroded the country's justice system.
Yet we fear this latest decision signals that instead of ushering in proper reform, the authorities are intent on holding on tight to the emergency powers they enjoyed for so long.
1312 GMT:Egypt. Some are expecting the former Mubarak Prime Minister and ally, Ahmed Shafiq, to win the Presidential elections. For starters, there is a backlash against the Muslim Brotherhood from the secular and liberal corners, as well as from the Christians who fear the rise of an Islamic party. Combine these corners with support from supporters of Mubarak, and also look at the disappointment in the Muslim Brotherhood's leadership as of late, and Shafiq begins to look like the favorite.
2025 GMT:Libya. Members of an elite unit set up by the Government to rein in militias have been accused of kidnapping and severely beating a prominent surgeons.
Salem Forjani, a heart surgeon working for the Ministry of Health, was seized on 17 May when he went to Tripoli Medical Centre to carry out the Ministry's order to remove the director, who was accused of links with the Qaddafi regime.
Instead, Forjani was confronted by members of the Government's Supreme Security Committee, who dragged Forjani through the hospital, beating him unconscious in front of the staff.
A fellow medic photographed Forjani being carried, shirtless and spreadeagled, down the hospital's ambulance ramp while an SSC soldier threatened to shoot unarmed hospital security staff giving chase.
The SSC troops bundled the doctor into a car and incarcerated him in a base at Naklia, a suburb of Tripoli, where he was beaten and kicked so hard in the groin that he was left with a ruptured testicle. For five days neither his family nor the Ministry of Health could find him or get confirmation that he was still alive.
Finally, after Forjani had been moved to a second facility, at Tripoli's Mitiga Airport, the SSC contacted the Ministry and released him.
2000 GMT: Egyptian football supporters, known as "Ultras", have been part of the uprising and protests since January 2011. They were in Tahrir Square again tonight:
Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 6:01
On the surface, the public-relations campaign was straightforward. Ever since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, regime figures have trumpeted that the Egyptian uprising was following the model of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. So when the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi was finally confirmed as Egyptian President on Sunday, it was natural that he and the Brotherhood should be welcomed as Tehran's partner..
