Egypt on course for unwanted violence

Submitted by redaksi on Sun, 11/09/2011 - 08:58

• Breaking News
• egypt
• israel

By Hassan Hanizadeh

The recent confrontations in the Al-Arish region in the Sinai desert, which left 5 dead and 18 others injured, has plunged the revolution of the Egyptian youths into a cloud of suspicion.

In the Al-Arish region, Egyptian armed men launched an attack on a gas pumping station transferring Egypt's gas to occupied Palestine and demolished a section of the liquid gas refinery.

This was the fourth armed attack on the gas pipeline in the last month.

This line provides for a portion of Israel and Jordan's gas demand. Israel buys Egypt's gas at a lower price than it actually is.

Although the attackers are yet to be identified, it seems that Israel has organized this attack to increase the level of its political haggling with the new government of Egypt.

The objective Israel is pursuing, through creating instability in the area where the pipeline passes in the Al-Arish region, is to coerce the new government of Egypt into forming a joint protective force.

That's why the explosion of the Al-Arish oil and gas pipeline could be interpreted as a prelude to pressurize the new Egyptian government to acquiesce to the formation of a joint protective force.

On the other hand, the return of the Egyptian revolutionary youths to Al-Tahrir Square is indicative of the eruption of disputes between the people and the ruling military council.

The Egyptian youths expected that after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former dictator, the military council ruling this country would promptly hold a free election.

However, thus far, no sign of change in the attitude of the military council towards foreign and internal policies and the holding of a free election in Egypt has been noted.

Egypt's former Constitution is still the reference for conduct and the demands of the Egyptian youths for the trial of those behind the oppression in the country are overlooked.

In such an atmosphere, the Egyptian youths lost their confidence in the ruling military council, especially that no change has been made in Egypt's foreign policy.

The youth and the people of Egypt demand the cessation of ties between Egypt and the Israeli regime, the revocation of the Camp David agreement, and the establishment of political relations with Iran; none of these demands has been met in practice.

After the fall of the former Egyptian dictator, the US and Saudi Arabia have struggled to impose their own policies on the ruling military council of Egypt.

While the US prevents the severing of the relations between Egypt and Israel, Saudi Arabia prevents the cultivation of relations between Iran.

These interventions have led to the development of a gulf between the nation and the military council, so much so that bloody confrontations have recently erupted between Egyptian youths and the military forces in Al Abbassiyah Square in Cairo.

These confrontations might extend to other cities in Egypt in the near future and push the revolution of the Egyptian youths into a new phase of unwanted violence.

The expansion of the scope of the confrontations will lead the extremely fragile Egyptian society into a multi-polar space and pave the ground for the launch of a military coup d'état in Egypt.

Egyptian elite and the revolutionary youths expect that the military council delegate its responsibilities to a select public council; the military council, however, does not look upon the transition of power to civilians favorably.

The military council is trying to drive a wedge between The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's revolutionary youths and it has achieved some success in this regard.

The Brethren has recently announced that it does not approve of the slogans chanted by the revolutionary youths for immediate change in the political structure of Egypt's power and this has caused a rift between the Islamists and the Egyptian youths.

The objective of the military council is the erosion of the lines of the Egyptian youths and rendering other people skeptical towards the youths so that they might be despaired of following through with their political demands.

The outlook of the horizon of Egypt's revolution has yet to become clear and myriad dangers threaten the country's course of revolution, one of which is the direct and indirect interferences of America, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

If the Egypt constitution is promptly not put to vote and the parliamentary and presidential elections are not held in a specified temporal framework, then there is always the possibility that the Army would remain at the helm of power for the long term.

Egypt's army remaining at the helm of power will drive the Egyptian youths from the political phase into the underground one and Egypt will consequently enter into an unintended process of armed confrontation.

The outbreak of internal tensions will definitely suite Israel because this regime does not approve of the participation of Egyptian youth in the power structure of the country.

Thus, although Egypt is currently going through a transitional period, it seems that dangers still threaten Egypt's political sphere. [presstv]