Free Republic

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi asked Oil Minister Sherif Ismail over the weekend to form a new Cabinet within one week after the government submitted its resignation, a statement from the presidency said. The office of the president said he accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and his Cabinet but that the ministers would continue to serve until a new body is appointed. Ismail will likely be appointed the new prime minister, replacing Mahlab. An engineer who held senior posts at several state-run energy firms, Ismail is seen as one of the best performing ministers. Prior to handing...

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday asked Oil Minister Sherif Ismail to form a new cabinet within one week after the government submitted its resignation, a statement from the presidency said. It was not immediately clear why the government resigned but officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Sisi had been unhappy with the performance of several ministries. The announcement comes almost one week after the authorities arrested Egypt's agriculture minister over corruption allegations. Egypt is battling an insurgency headed by an affiliate of Islamic State while trying to attract more foreign investment in an economy reeling from...

Libya's internationally recognised government appealed to Arab states over the weekend to launch air strikes against militants allied to the Islamic State (IS) group who have expanded their hold on the eastern coastal city of Sirte. "The Libyan government, unable to ward off these terrorist groups because of the arms embargo, and out of its historic responsibility toward its people, calls on brotherly Arab countries ... to launch airstrikes against specific targets of [Islamic State group] locations in Sirte in coordination with our relevant agencies," the statement said. The statement came late on Saturday as the IS affiliate seized control...

The Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has rejected a request by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to contain the group within the state, describing it as “a new lie by an infamous tyrant”. Sisi called on the Muslim Brotherhood to overcome past conflicts with the state and to turn over a new leaf under his leadership. […] Meanwhile, a leader of the Anti-Coup Alliance, Attia Adlan affirmed that “Sisi is trying to find a lifeline for himself after he failed to manage the state affairs and led the Egyptian economy to further deterioration.” …

A document released in late May by pro-Muslim Brotherhood clerics incited the Egyptian population to “strive for the complete elimination” of their current government, according to a new report. Calling the military-backed government a “criminal and murderous regime,” the radical clerics said public figures associated with it should be put to death, in accordance with Sharia law. The document also demands the release of Morsi, who it refers to as the “legitimate elected president.” […] “According to the Sharia, it is the duty of the ummah—its leaders and its people—to oppose this regime and strive for its complete elimination by...

"Islam is the Solution, Allah is our objective; the Qur'an is the Constitution; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; death for the sake of Allah is our wish.” -Motto of the Society of Muslim Brothers (Muslim Brotherhood) This week, we were reminded by a number of media outlets of Presidential Study Directive Eleven (PSD-11). This document, issued in 2011, ordered a re-assessment of the nation’s allies in the Middle East, and, ordered the U.S. to ally itself with the Muslim Brotherhood, an international terrorist organization. The implications of PSD-11 and of this alliance are both breathtaking and...

Noha Hashad (51), an Egyptian nuclear scientist who fled the Nile state in 2011 after her support of Israel made her a target for torture over many long years, has exposed troubling insights regarding Egypt’s military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula, as it fights terrorist organizations there. Speaking to Israel Hayom’s Emily Amrousi from her new home in Haifa, Hashad was asked to give her take about Egypt’s actions in Sinai, where the Egyptian army has been fighting radical groups such as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a group that recently swore allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS). “That’s all for show,” appraised...

Hezbollah is funded, trained and controlled by Iran’s Shiite government and includes both a political party represented in Lebanon's parliament and an armed wing, and considered a terrorist organization by the European Union. The U.S. has put the entire organization, which has operations in dozens of nations, on its terrorist list. Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah member of parliament, said his party is ready to put aside its religious stance in the interest of defending all of Lebanon’s 18 religious sects and establishing a “nonsectarian, democratic state.” “Although [Hezbollah] is a Muslim party we believe that all those fighting against imperialism,...

Many Arabs and Muslims see the meeting between Obama and Qatar's al-Thani as a gift to Qatar for its continued support of Islamic radical groups across the Middle East, including Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. On the eve of Obama's meeting, Egyptian sources revealed that Qatar was providing weapons and ammunition to members of the Islamic State in Libya. The sources said that 35 Qatari aircraft were involved in transferring munitions. Arab political analysts are also concerned about Obama's ongoing attempts to appease Iran, which continues to expand its presence in Arab countries such as Yemen, Iraq...

( President Barack Obama walks from the stage with first lady Michelle Obama after his speech at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi, India.) Obama] noted the persistent false rumors that he is a Muslim, not a Christian. “There have been times where my faith has at times been questioned by people who don’t know me, or they’ve said that I adhere to a different religion, as if that were somehow a bad thing,” Obama said. What is a “bad thing” is that Obama is a pathological liar, and he has hidden so much from the American people, it’s...

Why Israel? Why now? Though few Americans paid any attention at the time, in November of last year, Secretary of State John Kerry announced to the world that this summer would be defined by violence against the Jewish state. Almost as he had been tipped off, the Secretary of State warned Israel to make a deal with the likes of Hamas and Fatah, Palestinian parties who do not acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, Kerry said, “Does Israel want a third intifada? … “I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis; if we do not...

The Egyptian government continues concerted attempts to dismantle the Muslim Brotherhood’s sources of funding. In Contrast to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s overtures to Muslim Brotherhood members not involved in violence in the post-30 June 2013 period, the government is continuing to follow through on policies aimed at politically eliminating the Islamist organisation and cutting off its sources of funding. Most recently the Teachers and Pharmacists Syndicates, long time political platforms for the Brotherhood, were sequestrated. Earlier this week the assets of Zad and Seoudi supermarket chains, owned by leading Brotherhood members Khairat Al-Shater and Abdel-Rahman Seoudi, were seized. Though it sometimes...

An unfolding corruption scandal in Turkey has uncovered transactions that may have allowed Tehran to circumvent harsh U.S. and E.U. sanctions—a revelation that could destabilize Obama’s nuclear deal and threaten the government of Prime Minister Erdogan. A massive unfolding corruption scandal in Turkey—which has already forced the resignations of three government ministers and threatens to upend the Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan— is fast acquiring an international dimension amid accusations that Iran is enmeshed in Ankara’s political crisis. What started out as a domestic scandal involving shady real estate deals and allegations of bribery and kickbacks among...

Western Investigators: Muslim Brotherhood Assassinated The US Ambassador In Libya James and Joan Moryalti Western Investigators In Libya: The Libyan Security provided documents to Washington which revealed involvement of Morsi Former President of Egypt and Brotherhood Organization for the assassination of ” Chris Stevens US Ambassador in Libya on 11/9/2012.Barack Obama financed Brotherhood terrorist activities in Egypt. James and Joan Moryalti were interviewed on “Voice Of Russia” Radio station and they are Western Investigators who stayed in Libya during the NATO invasion. They are a part of a non-governmental organizations. They are observers and informers of war crimes in Libya....

The closer the Palestinian Authority gets to become a country, the more it spits in the face of those who feed it. Abbas says Obama should stay out of Syria; PA media blame Obama for the civil war and 9/11.

With the Egyptian military killing Muslim Brotherhood in the streets and Muslim Brotherhood members burning down churches and parading nuns through those same streets, President Barack Obama took to the microphone from a golf course in Martha's Vineyard to clarify America's perspective. Here were his inspiring words: "America cannot determine the future of Egypt. That's a task for the Egyptian people. We don't take sides with any particular party or political figure. I know it's tempting inside of Egypt to blame the United States or the West or some other outside actor for what's gone wrong." There is a reason...

As administration officials mull a response to the turmoil in Egypt, conservative foreign policy experts and commentators remain divided over the question of U.S. aid and how to deal with the military following its takeover and the recent bloodshed. Those who favor continuing aid cite the need to protect key U.S. regional interests, topped by a secure Suez Canal and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty—interests more likely to be safeguarded by the Egyptian military than the Muslim Brotherhood administration it overthrew on July 3. …

There’s some soul searching going on in the Obama administration as it ponders how they got sidelined in Egypt as the situation there got out of control in a spiral of violence. As the New York Times details in a post-mortem of U.S. policy, the administration went all out to persuade the military that had overthrown the Muslim Brotherhood to compromise and allow the Islamists to rejoin the government. Among other efforts to cajole them or to threaten aid cutoffs, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel made 17 often-lengthy phone calls to Egyptian General Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi trying to get him to...

Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation), today called on Egyptians to wage "jihad" against Egyptian army commander General Abdul Fattah el Sisi. Al Maqdisi, who was released from a Hamas prison in December, also called on Egyptians to overthrow "the tyrant" (el Sisi) and establish an Islamic state. In addition, al Maqdisi said he hoped that one of el Sisi's bodyguards would kill him. Al Maqdisi further stated, according to press reports, that although Jaish al Ummah does not currently coordinate with any Salafist groups in Egypt, it is...

When Obama went down to Cairo in the spring of ’09, his speech, titled “A New Beginning,” was little more than a thinly disguised call for regime change. It wasn’t so much the words that mattered as the message behind them that the Mubarak government no longer enjoyed backing from Washington, D.C. The alliance between Egyptian liberals and Islamists that overthrew Mubarak, in a coup mediated by the military, was cheered as an expression of popular will. What it actually was, was the whistling sound of air escaping into a post-American power vacuum. Obama’s call for regional regime change led...