EGYPT DENIES PROMOTING US MOVE ON JERUSALEM
Cairo dismisses tape of officer urging media figures to accept Trump decision
Cairo has criticised claims that an Egyptian intelligence officer directed a campaign to prepare the public to accept the US decision to move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Tapes have emerged in which the officer, Capt Ashraf Al Kholi, is purported to have told “talk show hosts” that Palestinians should forget about Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and be content with Ramallah in the West Bank.
But the state information service in Cairo said only one of the personalities mentioned hosts a TV show, and Egypt’s position is conveyed through leaders and public actions, not media figures.
“Egypt’s positions on international issues are not derived from alleged leaks from anonymous sources,” said the chairman of the service, Diaa Rashwan, after The New York Times published the recordings.
“Egypt’s positions are conveyed by the president, the minister of foreign affairs and all of the entities in charge have expressed, in word and deed, our inalienable position on Jerusalem despite the threats of the US permanent representative in the UN to cut aid to countries, including Egypt, over the UN Jerusalem vote.”
Two of the figures mentioned in the report denied the claims.
“The report is completely false,” Azmi Megahed, the only one of the four people who hosts a TV show in Egypt, told the news website Masrawy. “I say what’s on my mind on my programme and do not know an officer Ashraf Al Kholi.”
The report claimed Capt Al Kholi’s fourth briefing call was with singer and actress Civene Nessim, 66, whose stage name is Yousra. Nessim also dismissed the report as false.
“This is impossible, I got no such phone call and I’ve never heard of an officer named Al Kholi,” she said.
But the claims resonate with readers familiar with leaked phone recordings of Egyptian officials, which have been broadcast since president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from office and replaced by Abdel Fattah El Sisi in 2013.
A recording released in February 2015 purportedly captured Mr El Sisi and two top aides discussing ways to convince Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait to commit to billions of dollars in cash assistance to Egypt.
After the release of that tape, Saudi Arabia told Egypt oil shipments promised in a US$23 billion (Dh84.48bn) deal had been halted. They did not resume until March last year.
A leak that is more revealing of tensions between Egypt and Palestine was broadcast by Mekameleen TV, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood channel in Turkey, in September 2016. In that tape, Maj Gen Wael El Safty of Egypt’s general intelligence directorate criticised Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Egypt is livid at the attempts to portray Cairo as more receptive to the Israeli stance on Jerusalem than the Palestinians.
Mr Rashwan stressed it was Egypt that drafted the UN Security Council resolution condemning US president Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, a measure defeated only by the US using its veto.
On Saturday, Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry attended a meeting with ministers from five other Arab states to co-ordinate the response to the US endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
And in 10 days the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmed Al Tayyeb, will convene a conference on protecting the Arab and Islamic character of occupied East Jerusalem.
“It is a city under occupation, which means no actions are allowed that will change the status quo there,” said foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid.