Egypt threatens to use live rounds in security crackdown
Egypt threatens to use live rounds in security crackdown
September 12, 2011
Source: Guardian UK
Egyptian authorities have detained a further 92 people and vowed to use live ammunition to protect key buildings following the storming of the Israeli embassy last week, which left three protesters dead and provoked the worst crisis in Israel-Egypt relations for a generation.
“We won’t allow anyone to attack the interior ministry or any police station,” the interior minister, Mansour al-Essawy, told state TV. “According to the law, we will resist … If there is a danger to a building or those present inside the building, we will confront with bullets.”
The latest crackdown brings the total number of arrests from Friday’s protests to 130, and comes as Turkey’s prime minister prepares to fly into the Egyptian capital on Monday night, to begin a four-day tour of north Africa.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is embroiled in his own diplomatic row with Israel over the killing of pro-Palestinian Turkish activists by Israeli soldiers on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara aid flotilla ship last year, will address the Arab League on Tuesday. He is expected to outline Turkey’s new “regional foreign policy vision”, promoting closer ties with revolutionary Arab countries and sidelining their one-time ally Israel.
The trip will involve high-level talks with the de facto Egyptian leader, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and the interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf, with discussions focused on the forthcoming Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN, which both countries support, and the development of closer business links between the two nations. Turkey’s trade with the Arab world has increased six-fold under Erdogan’s rule – an indication of the country’s shifting diplomatic and economic priorities in the Middle East.
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