CAIRO: Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafik apologized on Saturday to supporters who were arrested this week and called on authorities to resolve the situation.
Police arrested three members of Shafik’s Egyptian National Movement on Wednesday and charged them with spreading false information harmful to national security, two security sources told Reuters.
Shafik, a former prime minister and ex-air force commander who is seen as the most serious potential challenger to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in an election due early next year, apologized for the trouble caused to the detainees and their families.
“I call on the relevant authorities to clarify the situation quickly, for it is dangerous,” Shafik said on his Twitter account.
President Sissi, a former military chief, is seen by many Egyptians as the only person able to provide stability after years of turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran leader Hosni Mubarak.
Shafik recently returned from exile in the United Arab Emirates to where he fled in 2012 after a narrow electoral defeat to Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mursi was removed from office in a military takeover led by Sissi in 2013.
Two weeks ago, Shafik said he was still deciding whether or not to run for the presidency in 2018.
Egyptian presidential hopeful apologizes to arrested supporters
Egyptian presidential hopeful apologizes to arrested supporters
Jordan condemns US ambassador remarks on accepting Israel’s West Bank annexation
- The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it rejects the ambassador’s “absurd and provocative statements”
CAIRO: Jordan condemned Saturday earlier remarks by US envoy to Israel Mike Huckabee, who said it would be acceptable if Israel took control of the entire Middle East, including the West Bank.
Huckabee has suggested that he would not object if Israel were to take most of the Middle East.
The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it rejects the ambassador’s “absurd and provocative statements,” in a statement published on Petra News Agency.
Ministry spokesman Fouad Majali said the remarks “constitute a violation of diplomatic norms, an infringement on the sovereignty of the region's countries, a blatant breach of international law and the UN Charter.”
Majali also said they contradict diplomatic efforts by the United States and the declared position of US President Donald Trump in rejecting the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The spokesperson reaffirmed that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are occupied Palestinian territories under international law, and that ending Israel’s occupation is a must for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on all of the occupied Palestinian territory, based on the two-state solution.
