Muslim Brotherhood boycott highlights Jordanian elections

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Jordan goes to the polls in the second election in as many days in the Middle East. But unlike Israel’s topsy-turvy free-for-all, don’t expect much change as a result of today’s Jordanian parliamentary elections. The salient feature of today’s election is that the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t participating — many of the parliamentary seats will be [...]

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El-Mursi Hegazy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Egyptian Economy

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Kevin Lees

While most of the attention on Egypt in the past couple of months has been over constitutional battles — president Mohammed Morsi’s decree asserting extraordinary powers and a hastily called referendum on what’s now become Egypt’s constitution — it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the Egyptian economy has gone from bad to [...]

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Time names Barack Obama Person of the Year. Is that too US-centric?

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Kevin Lees

So Time Magazine’s decision to anoint a Person of the Year since 1927, for reasons unknown, holds a rapt audience among folks in the United States, myself included. This year (oh the suspense!), Time chose U.S. president Barack Obama.  In those 85 years, of course, Time has chosen every U.S. president (except Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and poor Gerald [...]

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Morsi’s Egypt spirals further into chaos with apparent Dec. 15 constitutional referendum

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It’s hard to believe that 10 days ago, Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi seemed firmly in control of events in the Arab world’s most populous country — he had just been instrumental in achieving a ceasefire between Palestinians in Gaza and Israel, and Egypt’s constituent assembly, despite some difficulties, was plodding its way toward the draft [...]

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Morsi: ‘We’re learning. We’re learning how to be free.’

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Less than a week after Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi’s extraordinary decree asserting exception presidential powers, he’s given an English language interview to Time magazine. It’s incredibly fascinating. Read it all. Among other things (including a hard-to-follow metaphor about Planet of the Apes – the old one, not the new one), Morsi shows no regret about his decree: What [...]

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Egyptian president Morsi caught in the crossfire in embassy riots kerfuffle

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi today in Brussels made his most detailed comments yet on the Sept. 11 protests/attacks that took place at the U.S. embassy in Cairo (and the more deadly assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in Libya): “Muslims and Christians in Egypt are equal citizens and have the same rights… We are [...]

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Who is Mohamed al-Magariaf?

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Today’s U.S. — and world — media are likely to be focused on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the resulting deaths of U.S. diplomatic personnel there, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.  That’s crazy, given that today has already seen the jarring attacks on the U.S. embassy in Cairo, [...]

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Morsi, in firing defense minister, asserts presidential control over Egypt

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Of course, the significance of the decision by Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi on Sunday to announce the resignation of not just Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as defense minister, but his deputy, General Sami Anan, cannot be understated. It is easily the most significant moment in Egyptian governance since Morsi’s election — and it, surprisingly, comes just over a week [...]

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Egypt’s new government sworn in today, featuring continuity from SCAF transitional government

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Kevin Lees

The first Egyptian cabinet of newly elected Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and his new prime minister Hisham Qandil was sworn in today. That Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi (pictured above, with US defense secretary Leon Panetta) will continue to serve as defense minister in the cabinet of tells you everything you need to know about Egypt’s new cabinet. [...]

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Morsi announces surprise choice as new Egyptian prime minister

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Kevin Lees

This is a little strange. Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has appointed little-known Hisham Qandil, the current transitional minister of water resources and irrigation, as Egypt’s new prime minister. This upends several media reports over the past few weeks that Morsi was narrowing his search to more well-known economist types, such as former Central Bank of Egypt president [...]

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Former Mubarak intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has died

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Omar Suleiman has died at 77, while undergoing medical tests in the United States. He will not be missed among Egypt’s revolution-minded citizens, and he will be remembered both for the human rights violations that he is alleged to have committed as Egypt’s top intelligence chief for decades.  I think most of all, he’ll be remembered [...]

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Forget PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian — Egypt’s new PM is likely to be Mahmoud Abul-Eyoun

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Kevin Lees

UPDATE, July 24: In a surprise move, Morsi has announced water minister Hisham Qandil as his new prime minister. * * * * Newly inaugurated Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi is set to announce his pick for prime minister on Wednesday, which will be perhaps the single most important signal yet from the Morsi administration as to [...]

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Morsi declared winner of presidential runoff in Egypt

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Kevin Lees

So it’s Mohammed Morsi. Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been elected the first civilian president in the first free and fair elections (presumably) in the modern history of Egypt, which were held last weekend. I have to say, I was anticipating the fair chance of an announcement of Ahmed Shafiq as the [...]

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Egypt to announce presidential election results Sunday at 3 pm

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Or so says the Presidential Elections Commission. It’s been a bit of a hectic couple of weeks for Egypt, notwithstanding last Sunday’s presidential election runoff: it now has no parliament, no constitution, perhaps a dead former president and two potential living presidents, both of whom have declared victory.  And a very antsy Supreme Council of the [...]

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Morsi and Shafiq both declare victory in Egypt, as SCAF moves put transition in doubt

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Events have been moving quite rapidly in Egypt over the past two days as the initial count of the presidential runoff have taken place, and there’s been no shortage of media coverage as the story continues to unfold.  In the immediate aftermath of the race, Mohammed Morsi, the candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party, [...]

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