SINAI: Egypt has announced plans for a $15.5 billion urban development project in the Sinai peninsula, the vast desert area plagued by anti-government sentiment and a burgeoning insurgency.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi unveiled the scheme for the beleaguered region while embarking on the his campaign for re-election.
Dressed in military uniform, he described the project, which includes 14 new schools and 4,572 residential units, as an attempt to combat terrorism by improving the lives of Sinai’s impoverished residents.
“We want to change what has happened to Sinai in the coming four years,” El-Sisi said on Sunday. “This is a national appeal. I am asking for God’s support and for the support of all honorable Egyptians.”
Stretching between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, Sinai is a vast area of mountains, deserts and isolated towns that is home to an estimated 1.4 million people.
Long plagued by insecurity, it has grown increasingly unstable since a 2013 military coup brought El-Sisi to power in place of the democratically elected government of Muhammad Mursi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sisi was subsequently elected in 2014, when he won almost 97 percent of the controversial vote.
A local affiliate of Daesh has emerged in the region, launching attacks against government and civilian targets amid air strikes that The New York Times reported have been carried out by both Egypt and Israel.
In October 2015, Daesh claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian airliner over the peninsula, which killed 224 people. More recently, on Nov. 24, 2017, the group was blamed for an attack in which gunmen stormed a Sufi mosque in the town of Bir Al-Abed, killing more than 300 people.
Mustafa Madbouli, Egypt’s minister of housing, utilities and urban development, told state-run television the government hopes to create 1.2 million new jobs in Sinai by 2027 — a program of investment that it says will help increase the local population to 3.5 million.
The development project includes 4,572 new residential units for the town of Ras Sedr and the city of Abu Zenima, as well as a new 2,828-acre housing scheme in Ismailia. The unveiling of the plans came on the second day of campaigning in the country’s presidential election, with polling due to take place from March 26 to 28.
El-Sisi is widely expected to win the vote following a sustained crackdown against his political opponents. US-based Human Rights Watch said yesterday the government’s “heavy-handed repression” meant the “minimum requirements for free and fair elections” would not be met.
Egypt unveils major housing project for embattled Sinai
Egypt unveils major housing project for embattled Sinai
Trump warns Iran of ‘very traumatic’ outcome if no nuclear deal
- Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for a result “over the next month”
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran Thursday with “very traumatic” consequences if it fails to make a nuclear deal — but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical about the quality of any such agreement.
Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for a result “over the next month” from Washington’s negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.
“We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,” Trump told reporters.
“This will be very traumatic for Iran if they don’t make a deal.”
Trump — who is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to pressure Iran — recalled the US military strikes he ordered on Tehran’s nuclear facilities during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in July last year.
“We’ll see if we can get a deal with them, and if we can’t, we’ll have to go to phase two. Phase two will be very tough for them,” Trump said.
Netanyahu had traveled to Washington to push Trump to take a harder line in the Iran nuclear talks, particularly on including the Islamic Republic’s arsenal of ballistic missiles.
But the Israeli and US leaders apparently remained at odds, with Trump saying after their meeting at the White House on Wednesday that he had insisted the negotiations should continue.
- ‘General skepticism’ -
Netanyahu said in Washington on Thursday before departing for Israel that Trump believed he was laying the ground for a deal.
“He believes that the conditions he is creating, combined with the fact that they surely understand they made a mistake last time when they didn’t reach an agreement, may create the conditions for achieving a good deal,” Netanyahu said, according to a video statement from his office.
But the Israeli premier added: “I will not hide from you that I expressed general skepticism regarding the quality of any agreement with Iran.”
Any deal “must include the elements that are very important from our perspective,” Netanyahu continued, listing Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for armed groups such as the Palestinian movement Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“It’s not just the nuclear issue,” he said.
Despite their differences on Iran, Trump signaled his strong personal support for Netanyahu as he criticized Israeli President Isaac Herzog for rejecting his request to pardon the prime minister on corruption charges.
“You have a president that refuses to give him a pardon. I think that man should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly hinted at potential US military action against Iran following its deadly crackdown on protests last month, even as Washington and Tehran restarted talks last week with a meeting in Oman.
The last round of talks between the two foes was cut short by Israel’s war with Iran and the US strikes.
So far, Iran has rejected expanding the new talks beyond the issue of its nuclear program. Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, and has said it will not give in to “excessive demands” on the subject.
