Focus on Iraq
The war on Iraq -- and its ramifications in different spheres -- dominated parliamentary discussions this week. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
With public sentiment strongly opposed to a war, both the People's Assembly and the Shura Council (parliament's consultative upper house) held day-long debates on Iraq this week. MPs focussed on three thorny issues: the double- standards inherent in US Middle East policy; the potentially disastrous effects of a war on both Egypt's economy, and its relations with the world's only superpower; and the right of political forces to stage anti-war demonstrations.
With regard to the third issue, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) announced on 25 February that, for the first time in its 25-year history, the party would organise an anti-war march on 5 March. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif said the march would be the largest in Egypt's history, involving around one million demonstrators. The NDP also announced that opposition party leaders were invited to join NDP's senior officers in leading the march, which was set to descend on Cairo Stadium from starting points in Cairo, Giza and Qalioubiya.
The parliamentary debate about demonstrations also centred on the recently renewed Emergency Law, which MPs argued must not be at the expense of peoples' right to organise anti-war marches. Adel Eid, an independent MP, criticised the Interior Ministry for arresting anti-war activist Kamal Khalil for doing just that.
At the Shura Council, meanwhile, the Interior Ministry was thanked for sanctioning the 27 February rally that took place at Cairo Stadium. People's Assembly and Shura Council deputies spoken to by Al-Ahram Weekly said they thought the stadium rally -- which was organised by syndicates and opposition parties as well as the Muslim Brotherhood -- was the true catalyst behind the NDP's decision to organise yesterday's march. "The NDP wants to show that it is still Egypt's greatest political force," said Abul-Ezz El-Hariri, of the leftist Tagammu party. "Its senior leaders were infuriated that opposition parties took the initiative to organise the stadium rally, and I don't think they would have moved in this regard had it not taken place."
The potentially disastrous effect of a war in Iraq for Egypt's economy was, however, MPs' primary concern. A 182- page report, prepared by a special parliamentary committee about Prime Minister Atef Ebeid's 29 December policy statement, estimated that the losses in the spheres of tourism, Suez Canal revenue and exports to Iraq are expected to be between $6-8 billion, or nearly 10 per cent of Egypt's GDP.
MPs were frustrated that a recent Egyptian delegation to Washington -- headed by presidential political advisor Osama El-Baz, NDP policy secretariat chairman Gamal Mubarak, and Foreign Trade Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali -- failed to convince the US administration of the grave economic consequences of war for the Arab world in general and Egypt in particular. An NDP member of parliament's economic affairs committee told the Weekly, on condition of anonymity, "that it is clear the delegation failed to capitalise on the recent decision to float the Egyptian pound in its attempt to reach a free trade agreement with the US." According to the NDP MP, "The current US administration is completely ignoring the political and economic effects of its war on the Middle East, let alone its allies."
This was despite what Abul-Ezz El- Hariri called a deliberate decision to float the national currency as a way of lending support to the delegation's 27 January-9 February Washington visit. According to El-Hariri, "the decision was completely unsound and premature, and has led to a skyrocketing rise in prices, causing ordinary citizens to endure even more hardships."
Mohamed Khalil Qiwita, an independent MP with Nasserist tendencies, believes that "America's war in Iraq is in pursuit of oil and economic interests rather than to eliminate WMD." According to Mohamed Mursi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood MP, "the war is just the beginning of a new colonial war in the Middle East."
Fayez Abu-Harb, a North Sinai NDP MP, also brought up the Israeli nuclear reactor in the Al-Naqab desert, saying it was a "major threat to national security and an environmental risk for Sinai and the Red Sea". And yet, Harb said, the fact that "the world is ignoring these Israeli nuclear threats... is proof of America's double standards in the Middle East."
France and Germany's anti-war stance was hailed by MPs, one of whom, the NDP's Ali El-Sherif, thanked the two countries for "their firm stand against international conspiracies planned for the Middle East".
With anti-US sentiments running high, MPs also slammed America's recently announced initiative aimed at promoting democratisation in the Middle East. According to a parliamentary report, "this initiative is rejected because it aims to fulfill the interests of just one partner -- the United States. It also ignores that some countries, especially Egypt, have taken great strides towards democratising their political systems."
The report was also critical of the amount of money -- estimated at only $29 million -- allocated for the initiative. "This is nonsense," the report said, when you consider that "the costs of America's war against Iraq will amount to around $100 billion, or 350 times more than the initiative."
Mustafa El-Feki, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said, "America's Middle East democratisation initiative contradicts its military build-up in this region. Yes, we are in a dire need for more democratisation. But we are also more in need of tractors than bulldozers and rockets." According to El-Feki, the US initiative might be more welcome in the Arab world if America moved more sincerely towards establishing an independent Palestinian state.
The complaints, however, were balanced by the report's comment about reinforcing bilateral relations with America being an integral part of Egypt's foreign policy since 1975. "America is the only superpower in today's world and it is in Egypt's vital and strategic interest to maintain excellent relations with this superpower."
El-Feki said there is no doubt that Egypt and America are in disagreement over issues such as using force to disarm Iraq and forging a strategic alliance with Israel at the expense of Arab and Islamic interests. However, said El-Feki said, these disagreements have to be seen "as normal between two old friends".
