CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi confirmed on Monday that he will stand for a third term in office in a presidential election scheduled for December.
El-Sisi, a former army chief who has been president since 2014, had been widely expected to run again and secure a third term after constitutional amendments four years ago that would allow him to stay in office until 2030.
In recent weeks supporters have mounted a campaign using billboards and public messages urging El-Sisi to stand.
El-Sisi came to power after leading the ousting of Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. He was announced winner of presidential elections in 2014 and 2018 with 97 percent of the vote.
The election comes as Egypt is struggling with record inflation and a chronic shortage of foreign currency.
Egyptian president El-Sisi confirms candidacy in December presidential election
https://arab.news/9jzkq
Egyptian president El-Sisi confirms candidacy in December presidential election
- El-Sisi confirms he will stand for a third term in office
- Supporters have been urging the former army chief to stand
Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe
RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.
Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.
