Atlantic Council

It is a peculiar day for the Arab world when a political leader is accused of pandering simultaneously to the interests of the United States and ultraconservative sheikhs calling for global jihad. But strange bedfellows were made when Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi recently announced that Egypt would be “definitively” severing all diplomatic ties with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim called on Islamists not to stage any protests on June 30, as clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi would be tantamount to a “furnace of war.” Ibrahim also called on secular forces not to protest on June 21, a day on which Islamists have planned protests.

Following the Egyptian revolution in January 2011 a nationwide security vacuum has caused great unrest, particularly in the rugged Sinai Peninsula. Sinai’s geographic location bordering Israel and Palestine and its indigenous Bedouin population are the primary concern given the area’s influence on regional and national security.

President Mohamed Morsi said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus on Saturday and called for a no-fly zone over Syria, pitching the most populous Arab state firmly against President Bashar al-Assad.

Catch up on the latest out of Egypt every week, with analysis, news updates, photos, videos, and more.

In a letter to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Senator Tim Kaine, Senator Marco Rubio and twelve other senators, expressed deep concern regarding the recent convictions of forty-three pro-democracy, civil society workers in Egypt.

A senior official in Egypt's presidential office said that Egyptians are free to fight in the conflict in Syria, and will not be prosecuted on their return to Egypt.

In Washington DC, the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa held a hearing on the verdict convicting forty-three NGO workers of operating illegally.

On June 4, Egypt’s courts concluded the year and a half long sentence of 43 workers in 4 non-governmental organizations based in Cairo. Sentences varied from 1 to 5 years in prison as well as the confiscation of the NGO’s assets. The defendants were accused of illegally receiving foreign funds for their respective work in Egypt.

The Egyptian government, headed by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, agreed in principle on Wednesday on a draft law, proposed by the interior ministry, whose aim is to confront crimes which threaten national security, police officers as well as public and private property.

Following the Cairo Criminal Court’s conviction of forty-three non-governmental organization (NGO) workers, among them sixteen Americans, concerns for civil society groups in Egypt have grown, particularly amidst ongoing discussion of a repressive NGO law drafted by Egypt's presidency. 

In what has been the most serious affront to Egyptian civil society and prospects for democracy since the revolution and even well before then, last week brought the conviction of forty-three NGO workers and the closure of multiple NGO offices by court verdict. While a diplomatically expedient “resolution” may be pursued with the Egyptian government, a positive  response to this particular trial verdict would affirm the politicization of the judiciary and merely serve as a band-aid to a deep institutional disempowerment of civil society and the solidification of authoritarianism.

During a conference of Islamist parties discussing the Nile Dam crisis on Monday, President Mohamed Morsi urged political groups to put their differences behind them and pursue comprehensive national reconciliation to face the myriad challenges currently facing Egypt.

In a surprise move just a few hours after Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) issued its ruling, on June 2, on the Shura Council and the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting the constitution, the Egyptian presidency issued an official statement responding to the two rulings. Despite its brevity, this statement deserves analysis and comment.