Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Iraqi warming

THE IRAQI and Egyptian flags were raised on Monday over buildings which served as the corresponding interest sections of the two countries in Baghdad and Cairo. President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday that the diplomatic missions of both countries will be headed by chargé d'affaires, hoping that Iraq will "soon be integrated into the Arab fold."

"It's only a matter of time now," said Mubarak, who on Sunday met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Said El-Sahhaf, who conveyed a message from Iraq's Saddam Hussein. El-Sahhaf had held talks with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa a day earlier to discuss bilateral and regional issues.

Iraq, whose people have suffered heavily under the decade-long UN Security Council sanctions, was invited to last month's Arab Summit in Cairo, the first such invitation since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

In recent months, a growing number of Arab and Western countries decided to ignore the flight ban imposed on Iraq by the United Nations, organising humanitarian aid and "goodwill" flights to the economically-crippled country. Last week, Baghdad resumed its domestic airline service for the first time in 10 years, which will not recognise the northern and southern no-fly zones imposed by the United States and Britain.

Brotherhood on hold

FOR THE third time in four months, the Supreme Military Court postponed on Tuesday the handing down of sentences against 20 leading members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, reports Khaled Dawoud. The 20 defendants, including a former MP and several leading figures in professional syndicates, have now been held for more than a year since their arrest, triggering protests from their families and human rights activists.

The repeated deferrals appeared to support speculation that the trial was of a political nature and part of the over five-year-old confrontation between the government and the Brotherhood, Egypt's largest political Islamic group. The Brotherhood's leadership claims that police rounded up the 20 defendants to prevent them from taking part in ongoing parliamentary elections, or other elections expected to take place in professional syndicates, particularly the Bar Association.

In a scene that is becoming familiar, family members gathered in the early hours of the morning outside the Haikstep military camp, 35 km northeast of Cairo, in the hope of attending the sentencing session. But a police officer came to the camp's entrance to announce that verdicts were delayed until 19 November. Families did not seem surprised.

Brotherhood candidates in the first and second stages of parliamentary elections scored significant victories, winning 15 seats, the highest number by an opposition group. Any verdicts handed down by the Supreme Military Court on Tuesday were likely to influence the outcome of the third and last stage of elections which took place yesterday in Cairo and seven other governorates. The Brotherhood named 24 candidates for this last round. If harsh sentences were handed down, they were likely to generate sympathy for Brotherhood candidates. And if the defendants were acquitted, the question would be why they were arrested and held for more than a year in the first place.

Martyr Street

IN YET another display of anger against Israel and in support of the Palestinian Intifada, the Local Council for Giza has announced that the name of the street where the Israeli embassy is located will be changed from Ibn Malek to Martyr Mohamed Al-Dorra, after the 12-year-old boy who was murdered in his father's' arms by Israeli soldiers.

According to press reports, the council took the decision despite the Israeli embassy's attempts to dissuade it from doing so. The embassy was previously located on Iran Street in Dokki, an address which made the Israelis uncomfortable and prompted the move to Ibn Malek near Cairo University.

Since the move to the new location, police trucks have been stationed there to provide protection for staff at the embassy, which is located on the 16th floor of a residential building.

One can only begin to imagine how embassy officials will feel when their listed address will contained the name of the martyred child.

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