In today's brief:
The summons of Aida Seif El-Dawla to the prosecution tomorrow, the statement of UN experts on the Matsada2sh journalists before their detention renewal hearing, pending website license applications, the hunger strike of director Omar Marei’s wife against the Interior Ministry’s denial, the toll of “exchange of fire” statements, the trial of the ten Nubians in Riyadh, and the lawsuit over the ban on Egyptian women working abroad.
And in public affairs: the Ayyat train collision, the president’s talk of doubling the health budget, Kayan’s new colleges, the “no new taxes” discourse, the gas cut to fertilizer factories, electricity theft figures, the missing documents of the old rent law, the Awsati road workers and the Abydos 2 plant, a house collapse in Port Said, university incentives, the attacks on Saudi Arabia, and what was absent from the Foreign Minister’s statements in Tripoli.
Aida Seif El-Dawla: a second case in nine months after "the curtain was drawn"
Psychiatrist Aida Seif El-Dawla, one of the founders of El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture, appears tomorrow, Monday 9 November, before the Cairo Appeals Prosecution at its headquarters in Al-Rehab city, to be questioned in case no. 30 of 2026, Cairo Appeals Prosecution investigation register. The questioning had been set for 1 November, before the prosecution agreed to postpone it at her request for health reasons, according to what Seif El-Dawla announced. Until today, neither the charges against her nor the subject of the case have been announced, nor whether it is linked to an earlier case. The center’s staff announced their solidarity with her, and asked the prosecution to examine the complaints and the related investigations and close them.
This is the second case opened against Seif El-Dawla within nine months. On 15 February, the Supreme State Security Prosecution questioned her in case no. 809 of 2026, on the charge of “broadcasting false news with the aim of disturbing public peace,” and released her on bail of EGP 100,000 ($1,841). Lawyer Mahienour El-Massry said the questioning revolved around the sources of a report the center issued on 3 February on detention conditions during 2025, and the reasons for publishing it, the report that recorded 188 news items and distress calls and described Sector 2 of Badr 3 prison as “the black hole,” while lawyer Haitham Mohamedein said the charge “was limited to an act of publication.”
The two cases come after the decision of investigating judge Counselor Ahmed Abdel Aziz Qatlan, on 20 March 2024, that there were no grounds to bring criminal proceedings against the last five organizations in foreign funding case no. 173 of 2011, among them El Nadeem, and to remove the names of those concerned from the travel ban and asset freeze lists, saying that “with this the curtain has been drawn on the papers of the case.” Seif El-Dawla, who had been banned from travel in that case since November 2016, told Zawia3 at the time: “It is good that the case was closed, and the travel ban lifted,” asking: “Don’t we have the right to rehabilitation after all the accusations of treason, collaboration and defamation?”
The dispute between the authorities and the center goes back to the Health Ministry’s decision to close it on 17 February 2016 on the grounds of violating licensing conditions, then the police’s sealing of its headquarters in downtown Cairo on 9 February 2017 while its appeal against the decision was still pending, before the Administrative Court annulled the closure decision in January 2021, according to what Zawia3 published in 2024.
Matsada2sh journalists: 13 UN experts before Tuesday's hearing
Thirteen United Nations experts, among them five special rapporteurs and members of the working groups on enforced disappearances and on arbitrary detention, called, in a statement issued from Geneva on 5 November, for the immediate release of the six journalists of the Matsada2sh platform: Mohamed Ashraf (Abu Omeira), Abdullah Qadri, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Adel and Mohamed Mahmoud. The experts said the prosecution of the platform’s team and the threats directed at its founder, Abdelrahman Mansour, are “not isolated incidents,” but reflect a “widespread and escalating” practice of the unlawful detention of journalists in Egypt, and that the use of “vague and overly broad” counter-terrorism provisions to prosecute them is incompatible with international human rights law.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights published, today, the statement in Arabic, and explained that the Supreme State Security Prosecution will consider renewing the detention of the six the day after tomorrow, Tuesday 10 November, in case no. 8083 of 2026, Supreme State Security register, on pretrial detention ongoing since 4 October, on charges including joining and financing a terrorist group and spreading false news. The prosecution had renewed their detention most recently on 27 October.
Zawia3 did not find an official Egyptian response to the UN statement as of today. After it was issued, the Egyptian mission in Geneva called, at an event marking 60 years of the two international human rights covenants, for “constructive dialogue with states, and respect for legal diversity,” without referring to the case.
The Public Prosecution had listed, in its statement on the case on 7 October, among what it attributed to the defendants, “highlighting the shortcomings – and nothing else – in state institutions, and belittling the roles of its officials and their performance.” On 20 August, about five weeks before their arrest, Minister of State for Media Diaa Rashwan described his message to journalists as a “venting” that seems necessary, and wrote in it that “freedom of opinion, expression and criticism is an inherent right.” Zawia3 has followed the case since the night of the raids on 28 and 29 September.
Website licensing: 95 websites without a decision against a "tiny proportion"
The head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, said, at a session held by the syndicate yesterday, Saturday, attended by the rapporteur of the freedoms committee, Eman Ouf, and representatives of 12 news websites, that there are “95 websites that have applied for a license and have not been decided upon,” on the same day the Supreme Council for Media Regulation said that the limited cases that were not granted a license “represent a tiny and very limited proportion,” without mentioning any figure. Zawia3 did not find a published overall tally by the council since its report on 2021, as yesterday’s brief noted.
At the session, Hassan El-Azhary, legal adviser to Al-Manassa, said the website had submitted applications in 2018, 2021 and 2023 and an inquiry request in 2024 without a reply, and without being asked to complete any document, and that he had not been able to enter the council’s headquarters “not once in 8 years.” Esraa Abdel Fattah, one of the founders of Fakkar Tany, said the council’s secretary-general, Counselor Yasser El-Maabady, asked them: “Aren’t you working? Is there something you’re missing?!”, and Eid Helal, representative of the Al-Bashayer website, said the website has been operating for 20 years and has submitted repeated applications since 2018. El-Balshy announced that the file will be raised at the first annual media conference on 3 December.
Prisons: four denials without names and a complaint with a name
Noura El-Sayed, wife of director and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei, began, today, a three-day partial hunger strike, in protest at what she described as “deliberate medical negligence and violations” against her husband in the Tenth of Ramadan 6 Reform and Rehabilitation Center, after visiting him on 5 November. The family said in a statement that he suffers from swelling and pain in his hand after surgery to fix a fracture, that a request to have him examined by a vascular surgery consultant was refused, that the family and lawyers are prevented from seeing the results of X-rays and tests, and that his ward was subjected to a search campaign on 5 November during which his papers and writings were confiscated. Marei is held in case no. 3383 of 2026, Supreme State Security register, since his arrest on 11 May. A joint statement by rights organizations had made the same medical demands on 25 August.
By contrast, a “security source” denied four times within 11 days allegations about prisons, without naming a center or an inmate: an inmates’ strike on 28 October, a reduction of visits on 5 November, the deteriorating health of an inmate on 6 November, and violations in one of the reform centers on 7 November, affirming that “all inmates of reform and rehabilitation centers receive full aspects of care.” In a television interview published on 7 November, Major General Younes El-Sheikh, former Assistant Interior Minister and director of the General Administration of Community Protection Investigations, said that Arab and foreign delegations “expressed their admiration for the level of development and capabilities” in the centers, without naming a country or a center. None of the statements mentioned an inspection by the Public Prosecution, which a statement by ten organizations on 9 October called on to inspect prisons, after documenting protests in the prisons of Minya, Tenth of Ramadan, Abu Zaabal, Badr and New Valley.
"Exchange of fire": 29 killed in four raids within 17 days
Zawia3 counted 29 killed within 17 days in four raids announced by the Interior Ministry or attributed to its agencies, and described as exchanges of fire with “criminal elements”: six in Qalyubia, Menoufia and Sharqia on 22 October, nine in Ezbet Samara in the city of El-Qurein in Sharqia, in an operation attributed to the General Administration for Drug Control, on 1 November, five in Qalyubia and Beni Suef on 2 November, and nine and a policeman in governorates it did not specify on 7 November.
None of the statements mentioned the names of the dead. The seizure figures in the statements of 2 and 7 November are close, as each of them announced the seizure of “nearly 4 tons” of drugs, and 101 weapons in the first and 110 in the second. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights had counted 573 killed in similar statements between January 2025 and June 2026, and called on the Public Prosecutor to investigate them.
The ten Nubians in Riyadh: an appeal hearing without official comment
The Refugees Platform in Egypt said that the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal in Riyadh resumes today the trial of ten Egyptian Nubian citizens, after the Supreme Court accepted the appeal of eight of them against prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years, that one of them, Faragallah Youssef, underwent “an amputation of his foot because of the shackles placed on it,” and that they are held in Asir prison, about 950 kilometers from Riyadh. At a seminar at the Nubian Club in Nasr El-Nuba, participants, among them former parliamentary candidate Abdel Sabour Hasaballah, appealed to King Salman bin Abdulaziz and the Crown Prince to issue a royal pardon.
The outcome of the hearing had not been announced by the evening, and Zawia3 did not find a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigration about it. The men were first arrested on 25 October 2019 before an event commemorating the October War that they were organizing, were released in December of the same year, then were re-arrested in July 2020, and the sentences against them were issued on 10 October 2022, according to Amnesty International. Sources differ on what became of the sentences after they were reduced in September 2025, as Human Rights Watch said they were reduced to between seven and nine years and that the ten remain detained, and reported that the Egyptian consulate in Riyadh called on citizens on 29 October 2019, days after their first arrest, to respect the Kingdom’s laws and regulations.
Ban on Egyptian women working abroad: the court waits for the opinion of two national councils
The Administrative Court, first circuit for rights and freedoms, postponed, yesterday, consideration of lawsuit no. 45727 of judicial year 80, filed by lawyer Hany Sameh and joined by affected women, to annul the ban on Egyptian women traveling to work in professions including cooking, nursing, domestic care and serving food and drinks, to 5 December, “for representatives of the National Council for Women and the National Council for Human Rights to attend.” Zawia3 did not find an announced position from either council, and both are respondents in the lawsuit.
The ban was issued on 1 April in the form of “new binding instructions to Egyptian labor recruitment companies abroad,” based on “reports monitored by the labor representation office in Riyadh,” and Zawia3 did not find the text of those reports or a number for the decision. The State Commissioners Authority recommended, in October, annulling it for violating Articles 11 and 53 of the Constitution. Zawia3 had reported in October 2024 a decision that required “women from the lower categories” to obtain prior permission to travel to Saudi Arabia.
Ayyat train: a second collision in two months on a line whose signal upgrade was never announced complete
The “Tahya Misr” train no. 134 (Giza – Fayoum) crashed, today, into the rear of train no. 2010 (Cairo – Aswan) between the Kafr Ammar and El-Reqqa stations in Ayyat district in Giza, according to the National Authority for Egyptian Railways, and the Health Ministry announced the death of four and the injury of 88, who were taken to the hospitals of El-Wasta, Ayyat and Atfih in 72 ambulances. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directed “speed of investigation into the circumstances of the accident, and holding accountable anyone proven negligent,” the prosecution moved to the accident site, and requested the formation of a technical committee from the authority. At the site, Transport Minister Lieutenant General Kamel El-Wazir said to a citizen who told one of his bodyguards “I am upset about these people”: “Go in and do what you want to do, go in please, if you won’t go in then be quiet and don’t crowd.”
Official statements had not mentioned, by the evening, the cause of the collision, the number of passengers, or when the technical committee will finish. The head of the Financial Regulatory Authority, Islam Azzam, raised compensation for death and total permanent disability “exceptionally” from EGP 30,000 ($552) to EGP 50,000 ($921), the same amount the authority decided exceptionally after the Zagazig train collision in September 2024, while it raised it to EGP 75,000 ($1,381) after the Matrouh train accident in August 2025.
On 10 September, two freight trains collided at El-Baleeda station in Ayyat itself, the seizure of the black boxes and the formation of a high committee were announced, and Zawia3 did not find published results of its investigation. Today’s accident site lies on the Cairo – Beni Suef section, where the minister witnessed in September 2023 the signing of a contract to replace its electrical signals with an electronic system along 125 kilometers, and Zawia3 did not find an official announcement of its completion. In May 2026, the head of the authority, Mohamed Amer, said before parliament that the signal upgrade of the Beni Suef – Assiut section was complete, without mentioning the Cairo – Beni Suef section.
In an accident in which a train hit a vehicle at a level crossing in Ayyat, in January 2016, a crossing worker was detained for four days on the day of the accident itself. Zawia3 had found last August that accountability after train accidents since 2019 fell on workers on site, while the transport minister remained in his post.
Health: "doubling the figure" and three figures for one budget
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said, today, at the opening of the third medical conference of the Armed Forces College of Medicine, that providing health services “as hoped” requires “a budget equal to double the health sector budget once or twice at least,” adding: “I always look at the empty half, not the full half, so I can fill it,” without setting a timeline or a funding source. He directed the government to set “a trusted and respected legal framework” to encourage educational endowments.
Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar had said at the same conference that government spending on health rose from EGP 42.4 billion in 2014 to about EGP 511 billion ($9.41 billion) in the 2026/2027 budget. This figure differs from the EGP 301.9 billion ($5.56 billion) allocated to the health sector in the functional classification of the same draft budget, and from the EGP 855.9 billion ($15.76 billion) that the House of Representatives’ Plan and Budget Committee said represents 4.2% of GDP, exceeding the 3% set by the Constitution. In October, the minister said that health spending is not measured by the ministry’s spending alone, but includes “the social determinants of health.”
The talk of doubling spending came a day after the spokesman for the Cabinet’s presidency, Counselor Mohamed Adel, affirmed that the decision to rationalize public spending “does not aim to touch the allocations of service sectors, foremost health and education,” and days after complaints by hemophilia patients about shortages of essential medicines, and complaints by dialysis patients about a shortage of “epoetin.” The presidential statement did not clarify the relationship of the “legal framework” required for educational endowments with the “Charitable Endowment Fund,” which was established by law no. 145 of 2021, and whose purposes include caring for scientific and health institutions.
Kayan: new colleges three days after halting new projects
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced, today, in his speech at the medical conference of the Armed Forces College of Medicine, the establishment of six new colleges at Kayan University affiliated with the armed forces, whose capacity is about 25,000 students and which opens in February 2027, and that the Tahya Misr Fund will bear the study costs of top students there on condition they remain top students, directed “to study the possibility of allowing the transfer of the top ten students in the Thanaweya Amma to the colleges of Kayan University,” and announced another university on the Ain Sokhna road opening in March 2027. The statement did not mention the cost of the colleges, their funding source, their fees, or the admission rules for civilians.
The announcement came three days after the Cabinet’s approval of the spending rationalization decision, which bars contracting for new projects until 30 June 2027, without it being clear whether the decision applies to entities affiliated with the armed forces. Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk estimated the targeted savings from the decision at “between EGP 45 and 50 billion” (between $829 and $921 million), saying that some measures apply for three months and others continue until the end of the year.
The House of Representatives had deleted on 12 October, in response to the president’s objection to the university’s law, Article 25, which granted students of the military track “additional advantages,” “to consolidate the principle of equality and equal opportunity,” less than a month before the directive to study opening the door to transfer for the top ten alone.
Taxes: "without imposing any new taxes" three days after a cigarette tax increase
The Assistant Finance Minister for Investment Affairs, Nevine Mansour, said, today, at the Cairo Economic Forum, that tax revenues rose 35% in the first year of the facilitation packages and 27% in the second year “without imposing any new taxes or raising the rates of existing taxes,” and that public debt fell to “about 80%” of GDP, without specifying the fiscal years meant or whether the percentages are in nominal terms amid inflation that reached 12% in October.
Three days earlier, on 5 November, the application began of a customs circular raising the limits of cigarette price brackets and the tax per pack by 12%, in the second of three annual increases stipulated by the 2025 amendment to the value-added tax law, which also raised the tax on contracting from 5% to 14%, and whose yield the undersecretary of the Plan and Budget Committee, Yasser Omar, estimated at about EGP 105 billion ($1.93 billion). Philip Morris raised the prices of brands including Merit from EGP 111 to 121, while Cleopatra cigarettes were sold at kiosks in Cairo for EGP 55 against an official price of EGP 48. Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk had said before the House of Representatives in June that “the new budget draft does not include any additional taxes or fees.”
As for the debt ratio, the ministry itself had announced on 17 October that government debt reached 81.9% of GDP at the end of June 2026, while Central Bank data showed external debt rising from $164.8 billion at the end of March to $166.7 billion at the end of June. This comes during the final review of the International Monetary Fund program, which its spokeswoman, Julie Kozack, said focuses on “mobilizing domestic revenues.”
Fertilizer gas: a second cut learned of from the stock exchange
Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO) disclosed, today, to the Egyptian Exchange that it was notified of a cut in natural gas supplies of 33%, and said it continues operating “according to the available quantities of natural gas,” and its share fell 6.17% and Abu Qir Fertilizers’ share 4.98%. Agriculture Minister Alaa Farouk said the impact of the cut on subsidized fertilizers is “completely nil”, and that agricultural cooperatives hold about 400,000 tons sufficient for more than two months, out of winter season needs of about 900,000 tons.
Zawia3 did not find a statement from the Petroleum Ministry on the cut, its duration or the quantities withheld, as it became known from the companies’ disclosures. It came after a 20% cut that began at the start of the month, which Zawia3 reported on 3 November. On 29 August, the Petroleum and Agriculture ministries denied a report about reducing the share of subsidized fertilizers, and the Petroleum Ministry affirmed “the continued provision of the fertilizer factories’ needs of natural gas in the required quantities.”
In January 2026, Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi announced a plan to drill more than 100 exploration wells during the year. Egypt’s gas production fell from about 7 billion cubic feet per day in 2019 to about 3.7 billion currently. The minister said in early September that the cost of a liquefied gas cargo rose to about $80 million against $40 million before the war on Iran. In June 2024, supplies were cut to fertilizer factories by between 20 and 30%.
Electricity theft: a new loss figure and the "video" rule
Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat said, today, that losses from electricity theft “reach EGP 40 billion” ($736.5 million), and that “any electricity theft report that is not filmed on video, whatever its value, even if millions of pounds, is cancelled immediately,” without specifying the period the losses cover, the number of reports to be cancelled, or whether amounts collected under reports without video will be refunded. The statement came a day after the Electricity Holding Company denied allegations of abuses in writing up reports, and affirmed “not charging any subscriber financial amounts without legal basis or grounds.”
The ministry’s figures on theft change from one statement to another. In October 2024 the minister spoke of “EGP 30 billion in losses,” and in April 2026 the ministry announced the writing of 4.1 million reports worth EGP 16 billion over 18 months. In August the minister said that the amounts collected “exceed EGP 20 billion” in the first two years of applying the measures, then said on 27 September that the value of recorded thefts reached about EGP 15.89 billion, of which 10.02 billion was collected, without specifying the period. Zawia3 has followed complaints by citizens whose meter top-ups were stopped and who were asked for amounts to replace them.
Old rent: a law being enforced while its documents have not reached the court
The Commissioners’ Authority at the Supreme Constitutional Court postponed, today, consideration of case no. 21 of constitutional judicial year 48, filed to challenge old rent law no. 164 of 2025, to 13 December. Lawyer Ayman Essam, who filed the case, said the State Lawsuits Authority “announced that it was impossible to submit the documents required from the House of Representatives, noting that it had written to the House to obtain them without receiving a reply,” documents relating to the procedures of issuing the law, whose origination the defense challenges as void.
The case had been postponed on 13 September to today’s session after the state informed the court that it had requested the documents from parliament. Meanwhile, the law continues to be enforced, ending contracts for residential units after seven years and non-residential ones after five, and raising rents 20-fold in “premium” areas with a minimum of EGP 1,000 ($18.4). Yesterday, MP Lotfy Shehata submitted a briefing request demanding timetables for delivering alternative housing units, after the government extended the application deadline to 12 January 2027 without announcing the number of accepted applications or delivered units.
Awsati workers: surgeries of EGP 400,000 and directives for "urgent aid"
The Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services said it received testimonies and appeals from the families of those injured in the Awsati road accident, stating that they “were left alone facing exorbitant treatment costs and urgent surgical operations,” some costing up to EGP 400,000 ($7,365), among them a girl who needs two operations costing EGP 340,000 ($6,260), and who had gone out to work for EGP 100 ($1.8). The accident took place on 31 October at the junction of the Awsati road with the Dabaa axis in Giza, when a microbus carrying day laborers, among them a number from Sinnuris district in Fayoum, collided with a truck, killing ten and injuring 24.
On the day of the accident, Social Solidarity Minister Maya Morsy directed the provision of urgent aid, the Health Minister, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, directed care for the injured “until their recovery,” and the Financial Regulatory Authority announced insurance compensation of EGP 100,000 ($1,841) for each death, and compensation for the injured according to disability rates, without mentioning who bears the cost of surgeries. Five days later, on 5 November, the government signed a protocol to register delivery workers in the irregular labor account, which it said covers “major and minor surgical operations.” The Dabaa axis saw a bus collide with a truck in August and a vehicle carrying agricultural workers overturn in October.
Abydos 2 plant: 250 workers laid off in an internationally financed project
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms said it received testimonies from workers of the company “Smart” working at the Abydos 2 solar power and battery storage plant in Kom Ombo, Aswan, stating that about 250 workers were dismissed “suddenly and without any prior warning,” without being paid their wages overdue since August or any settlement. The Commission had documented in an earlier statement the withholding of day laborers’ wages and the death of worker Ahmed Abdel Maksoud in May from heat stress. Zawia3 did not find a response from the developer, the financiers or the Labor Ministry.
In December 2025, the International Finance Corporation announced a financing package worth $571.8 million for the plant, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, which is expected to provide more than 4,000 job opportunities, and the Corporation said it would monitor “safe and healthy working conditions” according to its standards, while Planning Minister Rania Al-Mashat praised the job opportunities the project provides.
Port Said: a wooden house six months after 115 demolition orders
A young man and an elderly woman died, today, in the collapse of an internal ceiling in an old wooden house in the Sharq district of Port Said, in the Bab 20 area, and an infant aged a month and a half survived with bruises, the house was evacuated, and the governor, Major General Ibrahim Abu Limon, decided to house the survivors in the youth hostel “until their legal status is examined.”
The governorate did not clarify the age of the house, or whether a demolition or restoration order had been issued against it. On 12 May, the governor announced demolition orders for 115 buildings “due to the danger they pose to public safety,” and pledged to take legal measures “immediately after the Eid al-Adha holiday,” and Zawia3 did not find an official statement on how many of them were carried out.
University incentives: a raise half paid by the universities
Hundreds of faculty members and researchers issued a statement describing the new incentives package as “disappointing”, and demanded a decision by the prime minister specifying the amounts and payment dates, and funding that does not depend on the institutions’ own resources. The prime minister had decided on 5 November to increase the quality incentive by amounts between EGP 1,500 ($27.6) for a professor and EGP 500 ($9.2) for a teaching assistant, split equally between the treasury and the universities’ own resources, alongside a new teaching incentive.
The Members’ Club of the research staff rejected linking the raise to own resources and excluding researchers from the teaching incentive, pointing to “no new appointments for about eight years” in research centers. The government did not announce the total cost of the package or the number of beneficiaries, and Madbouly had directed on 28 July “in implementation of the president’s directives” the “rapid” completion of the draft decision. The decision on the doctors’ incentive of EGP 750 ($13.8) was issued on the same day, which the Syndicate of Doctors considered below aspirations.
Saudi Arabia: a condemnation without naming and an authorization without announcement
The Foreign Ministry expressed, today, its condemnation of the “sinful attacks” on Saudi Arabia, and Egypt’s solidarity “fully” with it “in all the measures it takes to defend its security,” without naming the attacking party. The coalition spokesman, Turki Al-Malki, had announced the interception of ballistic and cruise missiles launched by “the Houthi militia” towards Riyadh and the eastern region, and the Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Saree, claimed four operations, the first of which he said targeted King Khaled Airport, Aramco tanks and the financial center in Riyadh, and the second Aramco in Abqaiq. Qatar named, in its statement on the same day, “the Houthi group.”
The Egyptian statement did not refer to the authorization that the House of Representatives granted the president on 26 October to “take the necessary measures to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” and Zawia3 did not find an official announcement as of today of sending Egyptian forces or receiving a Saudi request. On 1 November, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the House’s decision “is not related to sending Egyptian forces to Yemen,” that the support is “defensive in essence, and takes place inside the Kingdom’s territory,” and that Egypt is in contact “with Iran, the Houthis and the Yemeni government.”
Libya: gas pipelines in the statements, elections and mercenaries outside them
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed, yesterday, during his meeting at the new headquarters of the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli with Libya’s acting Minister of Oil and Gas, Khalifa Al-Sadiq, speeding up “establishing and connecting gas pipelines between the two countries” and completing projects to refine Libyan oil in Egypt and re-export it, without mentioning quantities, cost or a timetable, in the week in which gas supplies to Egyptian fertilizer factories were cut. In the statement on his meeting with the head of the Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Menfi, the minister reiterated “the affirmation of Egypt’s firm legal position” on the Turkish-Libyan maritime memorandum of understanding and “the importance of taking Egyptian concerns into account,” without the description “absolutely null and void” that the ministry used on 21 October appearing in it.
The ministry’s five statements on the Tripoli meetings were free of two points that the minister himself emphasized in his meeting with UN envoy Hanna Tetteh in Cairo on 21 May: holding presidential and legislative elections “simultaneously,” and “the immediate withdrawal of foreign forces, mercenaries and foreign fighters.” In his meeting with Tetteh herself in Tripoli, the minister relied on “the references of the solution, foremost the Skhirat agreement,” while President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had relied in 2020, alongside the right of self-defense, on “the only legitimate elected authority in Libya, which is the House of Representatives” as a basis for any Egyptian intervention. Abdelatty received yesterday a call from his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, about which the Egyptian statement did not touch on the eastern Mediterranean, while sources in the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that the call addressed it.
Photos: Rights defender Aida Seif El-Dawla, Zawia3 archive; Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir, photographed by the International Maritime Organization via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0); President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, photographed by Simon Walker / Number 10 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
