CAIRO: Egypt’s official State Information Service responded on Tuesday to a recent BBC report on the country’s human rights conditions and alleged torture, calling the report “lies and allegations.”
It has summoned the head of the BBC’s office in Egypt to receive an official letter of response on the report.
It blasted the report as “replete with contradictions as it clearly shows the author’s bias to portray an offensive image of the conditions in Egypt,” according to reports in Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The BBC published a 5,000-word article and video report on Friday called the “The Shadow over Egypt” on the topic of 'enforced disappearances'. It included interviews with families of alleged victims of torture and abductions by security officials.
A young Egyptian woman -- Zubeida Ibrahim Younis -- was mentioned in the BBC report, which suggested she had been "forcibly disappeared." But she later made a TV appearance on Monday refuting the claims.
Younis appeared on a popular local talk show explaining that she had been detained during a protest and later released, but was never tortured or abducted.
The BBC report showed photos and a video of her mother saying that Younis had been abducted.
However, Younis refuted her mother’s testimony in the BBC report, saying that she does not speak with her "due to [personal] circumstances".
"I got married, and I'm staying with my husband in Giza's Faisal, I don't speak with her," she told the talk show.
Egypt angered by BBC report on 'enforced disappearances'
Egypt angered by BBC report on 'enforced disappearances'
Arab, Muslim countries slam US ambassador’s remarks on Israel’s right to Middle East land
- The backlash widened sharply on Sunday as more than a dozen Arab and Islamic governments issued a joint statement denouncing the US diplomat’s comments as “dangerous and inflammatory”
JERUSALEM: Arab and Islamic countries issued a joint condemnation on Sunday of remarks by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel had a biblical right to a vast swath of the Middle East.
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and a fervent Israel supporter, was speaking on the podcast of far-right commentator and Israel critic Tucker Carlson.
In an episode released Friday, Carlson pushed Huckabee on the meaning of a biblical verse sometimes interpreted as saying that Israel is entitled to the land between the river Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.
In response, Huckabee said: “It would be fine if they took it all.”
When pressed, however, he continued that Israel was “not asking to take all of that,” adding: “It was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement.”
The backlash widened sharply on Sunday as more than a dozen Arab and Islamic governments — alongside three major regional organizations — issued a joint statement denouncing the US diplomat’s comments as “dangerous and inflammatory.”
The statement, released by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry, was signed by the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and the State of Palestine, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
They said the comments contravene the UN Charter and efforts to de-escalate the Gaza war and advance a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement.
Iran joined the chorus with its foreign ministry accusing Huckabee on X of revealing “American active complicity” in what it called Israel’s “expansionist wars of aggression” against Palestinians.
Earlier, several Arab states had issued unilateral condemnations.
Saudi Arabia described the ambassador’s words as “reckless” and “irresponsible,” while Jordan said it was “an assault on the sovereignty of the countries of the region.”
Kuwait decried what it called a “flagrant violation of the principles of international law,” while Oman said the comments “threatened the prospects for peace” and stability in the region.
Egypt’s foreign ministry reaffirmed “that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory or any other Arab lands.”
The Palestinian Authority said on X that Huckabee’s words “contradict US President Donald Trump’s rejection of (Israel) annexing the West Bank.”
On Saturday, Huckabee published two posts on X further clarifying his position on other topics touched upon in the interview, but did not address his remark about the biblical verse.
The speaker of the Israeli parliament, Amir Ohana, praised Huckabee on X for his general pro-Israel stance in the interview, and accused Carlson of “falsehoods and manipulations.”
Carlson has recently found himself facing accusations of antisemitism, particularly following a lengthy, uncritical interview with self-described white nationalist Nick Fuentes — a figure who has praised Hitler, denied the Holocaust and branded American Jews as disloyal.
