EU-DIGEST

Israeli Defense official: "Israel readying for attack on Iran" - by Amos Harel, Anshel Pfeffer and Jack Khoury

"Israel's recent deployment of warships across the Red Sea should be seen as serious preparation for an attack on Iran, an Israeli defense official told the Times of London on Thursday.Earlier this week, two Israel Navy gunboats openly sailed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. The ships that passed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday were two Sa'ar 5 gunboats, the Hanit and the Eilat. This follows a similar incident in late June, when an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine passed through the canal, later returning the same way. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit confirmed the crossings and said that Cairo's agreements with Jerusalem permit Israeli military ships to transit the canal. He declined to speculate on whether the voyage was meant as a warning to Iran or anyone else.

Israel has an interest in a naval presence in the Red Sea for two reasons: the effort to halt arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip - which, according to international media reports, mainly takes place by sea from Iran to Sudan, and then overland via Egypt, and the effort to bolster its deterrence against Iran in the event of a direct conflict breaking out." Note EU-Digest: this is sensationalist reporting, because in reality Israel would certainly not carry out open naval activities if it was planning to attack another country or carry out surveillance activities. So the above report seems to be mainly for the purpose of intimidation and seems to be in-line with recent statements made by the US State Department.

Labels: Egypt, Iran, Israel, Nuclear proliferation, US

Egypt warns Europe against sending warships to Gaza

Egypt warned European countries on Tuesday that sending warships to patrol the waters off the Gaza Strip could strain ties with the Palestinians and Arab countries. Speaking to reporters after meeting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said he had urged European ministers in Brussels on Sunday to consider "Arab feelings" on such a deployment. "They must understand Arab and Muslim feelings," Abul Gheit said he told the ministers. "We don't envision European countries placing naval units in Palestinian territorial waters, to perform a task that is Israel's responsibility," he said.

Labels: Egypt, EU, Gaza

Bulgaria in talks to import Egyptian natural gas reducing dependence on Russian energy linking existing Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline

Sameh Fahmy the Egyptian oil minister held talks today (Thursday) in Bulgaria about selling up to 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to the EU country, which is trying to cut its dependence on Russian energy imports. Egypt's Oil Minister said deliveries could begin in 2011-2012, starting at half a billion cubic meters per year.Dimitrov said Egyptian gas could come to Bulgaria through the existing Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline if Turkey and Egypt were to link their gas networks. Such a link, he said, would be 'crucial to guarantee Egyptian supplies for the Nabucco gas pipeline project. The Nabucco pipeline was built to ease Europe's reliance on Russian energy. The EU gets about one-third of its oil and about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia.

Labels: Bulgaria, Egypt, EU, Gas Supplies, Greece, Italy, Turkey

For the complete report from the International Middle East Media Center click on this link

Hamas-Zahhar, “We presented our position to Suleiman, awaiting Israeli response”

Mahmoud Zahhar, one of Hamas political leaders, stated on Sunday that the movement presented its response to 15 questions presented by the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Omar Suleiman, regarding a truce deal, and added that Israel needs also to answer these questions.Zahhar stated that the former US President Jimmy Carter asked Hamas to declare a unilateral truce but the movement told him that it has previous experiences with Israel as the movement, and other factions, previously declared unilateral truces but Israel continued its assaults and violations. He said that any truce deal should be bilateral and should be a comprehensive deal under Egyptian supervision. He further said that Hamas will discuss on Monday the proposals of Carter regarding the truce and will present its official position.

Responding to a question by Carter, Zahhar said that if a comprehensive peace deal is achieved with Israel, and if this deal was subject to public referendum, then Hamas will accept whatever the people decide as long as this referendum includes all Palestinians in Palestine and in exile.

Labels: Egypt, Hammas, Israel, Palestine

Homosexuality is not a comfortable, much less a popular, topic among Muslims. Broach the subject in the Middle East, and you’re likely to hear a response like the one Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave US audiences last year: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country.” At best, society adopts a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ approach – do what you will, just don’t advertise it. A controversial new documentary, A Jihad for Love, is shattering that taboo by interviewing homosexual Muslims, including an Egyptian gay man ‘outed’ by his arrest during the 2001 Queen Boat raid and an Egyptian lesbian still hiding her sexuality from society. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma had dual motivations: first, to challenge the mindset that Muslim and gay are mutually exclusive, and second, to challenge the Western world’s own Islamophobia.

Born and raised in India, 34-year-old Sharma is currently touring the world, screening his 81-minute documentary in Canada, South Africa and Europe. Released in September 2007, A Jihad for Love is his first venture and an emotional opus; it cost $2 million and took six years to complete, with filming in four continents, 12 countries and nine languages.Hendricks’ research included interpretation of the Qu’ran in a modern context and studies of inconsistencies in the hadith. He eventually came to the conclusion that consensual homosexual relationships were permissible in Islam. Hendricks now travels around the US giving workshops to Muslims about homosexuality in Islam and offering a critical look at hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]), from which most of the condemnations of homosexuality come.

Labels: Egypt, Gays, Islam

EU deputies slam Egypt over rights despite Cairo threats

European Union lawmakers adopted Thursday a resolution criticising Egypt's human rights record, as Cairo threatened to sever ties with the assembly and summoned EU ambassadors to complain. In a sparsely attended session, belying the importance of a public admonition that had turned into a diplomatic incident, 52 of the 59 deputies present voted in favour of the text, while the seven others abstained. Before the vote, which came at the end of a plenary week after many of the more than 780 deputies had already left Strasbourg, parliamentary leaders vowed not to cave in to Egyptian pressure. "The European Parliament is sovereign and decides what it wants to decide," Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit told AFP in Strasbourg.

Labels: Egypt, EU, Human Rights

"Lover President" Sarkozy uses billionaire's jet for getaway to Egypt"

President Nicolas Sarkozy, in Egypt with new girlfriend Carla Bruni, came under attack at home for flying on his Christmas holiday aboard the private jet of a billionaire businessman. Opposition political parties accused the president of compromising his office, and asked what the plastics-to-media magnate Vincent Bollore can expect in return for his generosity. "As soon as the President makes himself dependent on the favours of billionaires, inevitably there will be qui-pro-quos and we would like to know what they are," said Socialist Party deputy Arnaud Montebourg. "This mixing of private and public interests damages the impartiality of the state," he said.

Labels: Carla Bruni, Egypt, France, Politics, Sarkozy