Newsreel

By Sara Abou Bakr

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Nuclear equity

EGYPT has announced that it will agree to more international commitments towards matters concerning non-proliferation of nuclear weapons only when the entire Middle East is willing to demonstrate the same level of commitment.

In a letter addressed to the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit stressed that Egypt is currently unwilling to accept any further commitments in view of the many failures of the non-proliferation regime. Abul-Gheit also insisted that the continued Israeli reluctance to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- that Egypt signed in the late 1960s -- and its firm rejection to allow international inspectors to check its application of safeguard measures in its nuclear facilities -- make it difficult for Egypt to accept added responsibilities in relation to non-proliferation.

In his letter, Abul-Gheit reiterated Egypt's strong support of the objectives of the non-proliferation regime but argued that securing the universality of this regime should be the priority for the CTBTO which was established in 1996.

The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA) this week issued a statement in support of the stance adopted by the Foreign Ministry. "Egypt has every right to decline to accept further non-proliferation commitments in view of the obvious security imbalance in the Middle East and the Israeli reluctance to join the NPT," said Abdel-Raouf El-Ridi, chairman of the ECFA.

The success and failure of the non-proliferation regime based on the NPT will be discussed this month in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly summit that will be held at head of state level. The summit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the international body.

Sherif info examined

EGYPT said on Tuesday it is investigating information made public by the Iraqi government on the kidnap and consequent assassination in July of Ehab El-Sherif, head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Baghdad.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Cairo is in contact with Iraqi sources and officials to investigate information published by an Iraqi daily earlier this week on the arrest of three suspected kidnappers of El-Sherif.

"The Foreign Ministry has asked the Iraqi charge d'affaires in Cairo to either confirm or deny the information," the ministry statement said.

Foreign Ministry sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that Cairo is

apprehensive about such information. "This is not the first time that similar stories are circulated in the Iraqi press," commented one Foreign Ministry source. According to the source Cairo cannot overlook the fact that the information is being circulated days before the convening of an Arab foreign ministers meeting expected to deliberate an Iraqi request for better Arab diplomatic representation in Baghdad.

Currently, only 11 out of the 22 Arab states keep a permanent diplomatic presence in Baghdad, mostly at a conspicuously low level.

The killing of El-Sherif and the consequent murder of two Algerian diplomats in Baghdad has dealt a serious blow to efforts by Iraqi Foreign Minister Houchiar Zebari to increase an Arab diplomatic presence in Iraq.

The current debate on the poor reference to Iraq's Arab identity in the draft Iraqi constitution, Egyptian diplomatic sources say, is likely to prompt several Arab capitals to reconsider their position on limited representation in Baghdad "despite the unmistakable security threats."

Detained longer

CHIEF Prosecutor Hisham Badawi on Tuesday extended the detention of prominent Muslim Brotherhood figure Essam El-Erian and three others for 15 days pending further questioning.

The group's secretary-general Mahmoud Ezzat, jailed since May, was released on bail in a move that sparked speculation that a deal had been reached between the government and the Brotherhood ahead of next week's presidential elections. The claim has been strongly denied by both the state and Brotherhood leaders.

In a statement to the press shortly after his release, Ezzat said that the security forces must have realised the futility of the detention system while dealing with the group. He recounted the "vicious" methods used by the security forces during both his arrest and detention. Ezzat was arrested on 22 May in a crackdown by the police after the movement began a series of street protests calling for reform and a boycott of the 25 May referendum.

Ezzat denied reports that he was released on LE2,000 bail. "I did not pay bail because I did not do anything wrong." He added that if anyone should pay money, it should be the regime as compensation for its "brutal treatment" regarding detained Brotherhood members.

Not hopeful

EGYPT's leading human rights group, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), has said it did not expect the country's first multi-candidate presidential election to be fair or objective.

"There is a huge lack of transparency," Hafez Abu-Seada, secretary-general of the EOHR, said on Monday. "The government is refusing any NGO to monitor the elections."

Monitoring the elections has been a major demand by the EOHR and other human rights groups in Egypt. Seada also criticised the decision to deny access to polling stations for independent observers. He claimed the entire monitoring operation was "shrouded in secrecy."

Another criticism was levelled at the national newspapers. "While television and radio have been objective to a great extent," Seada said, some of the coverage, he added, was focused on praising the campaign of the NDP candidate Hosni Mubarak while underlining the weak points of the other campaigns.

However, the EOHR praised the election coverage by the independent newspaper El-Masry El-Youm describing it as objective and analytical.

The Egyptian government has rejected any independent monitoring of the 7 September presidential elections.

Suicide threat

FOUR paramedics threatened to jump from atop the Antenna Building on Saturday to protest being fined and to demand the resignation of their manager.

The four, Said Badawi, Mahmoud Hamam, Ismail Badr and Wagih Farag, who suffers from diabetes and heart-related diseases, eventually climbed back down after threatening to jump from the famed building in Ramsis -- the antenna of which is 30 metres tall -- if their demands were not met by Health Minister Awed Tageddin.

On the ground, a large number of paramedics gathered in support of their colleagues who chanted, "we don't want the manager." The deputy health minister later announced that the paramedics manager Said Ismail had been replaced by an assistant Adel Azouz.

According to the workers, Ismail issued approximately 2,500 fines in the 18 months he was in charge and that they had filed various complaints to several authorities with no response.

Verdict time

THE ADMINISTRATIVE Court will on Saturday give its ruling over the lawsuit filed by the Kefaya movement contesting the legality of next week's presidential elections. In the lawsuit, Kefaya submitted a copy of the report prepared by the Judges Club, a report which doubted the authenticity of the results of May's referendum. The report stated that only three per cent of the population voted for amendments to Article 76 held on 25 May. The government had previously announced that out of 32 million registered voters, 53.6 per cent voted for the amendments allowing for the country's first ever multi-candidate elections. Accordingly, the lawsuit called for abolishing the elections, on the grounds that they will be based on a referendum, the results of which were forged.