Egyptian leader slams Syrian regime publicly
CAIRO—Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s international debut made its biggest splash at home. After he publicly denounced Syria’s regime while being hosted by Damascus’ top ally Iran, Egyptian supporters and even some critics are lauding him as a new Arab leader that speaks truth to power.
That may have been precisely the point. The drama of his Tehran speech boosts Morsi, an Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood who became his country’s first freely elected president, as he works to entrench his authority in Egypt.
His speech also points to new images he is cultivating: The tough, fearless leader who speaks with the voice of a people who chose him. For Islamists, he was a Sunni hero against the Shiites.
“He bows in respect for his people, so world leaders bow to him,” proclaimed a photo-montage posted on a Brotherhoodaffiliated Facebook page.
In one frame, it shows Morsi bowing his head amid crowds of supporters in Tahrir Square. In the other, it shows Morsi sitting at the Nonaligned Movement summit in Tehran on Thursday, with several dignitaries stooped over him to listen as if bowing and hanging on his every word.
For critics, the gushing support is reminiscent of the unquestioning praise given in state media to his predecessor, ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Moreover, they point out that behind the dra- matic gestures, Morsi is so far doing little to bring actual dramatic change in Egypt’s foreign policy. Morsi is being cautious, reluctant to turn sharply against Egypt’s main Mubarak-era allies, Saudi Arabia, the United States and even Israel. That is in part because he is constrained by the realities of the region and by his need for allies as he tries to ad- dress Egypt’s domestic woes.
Morsi makes his first visit as president to the US in September for the annual UN General Assembly session. Washington might have been expected to be unhappy to see the first visit by an Egyptian president to Tehran since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Instead, it joined in the praise. (AP)