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SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013
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Egypt Islamists rally against Morsi ouster Troops kill 3 protesters • Brotherhood chief emerges
CAIRO: A defiant supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood vowed yesterday his movement would stay on Egypt’s streets in their millions until Mohamed Morsi is restored as president, after his ouster by the army. Following the declaration by Mohammed Badie, thousands of Brotherhood supporters marched on the state television building, even after three Islamist protesters were shot dead at a Cairo rally. As military helicopters flew low overhead, Badie appeared on stage to screams of joy from jubilant supporters, following reports he had been detained in the wake of Wednesday’s ouster of the president. “Millions will remain in the squares until we carry our elected president, Mohamed Morsi, on our shoulders,” Badie told the crowd outside Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque, before leading chants of “Military coup!” and “Invalid!” In the fiery speech, he vowed to “complete the revolution”, and repeatedly referred to Morsi as the president. “To the great Egyptian army, I say ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) ... I say ... we will sacrifice,” he shouted as a military helicopter hovered low overhead. He urged the army not to fire on its own citizens, and added: “Our bare chests are stronger than bullets.” Badie’s impassioned speech came just three hours after three protesters were killed outside the Republican Guard headquarters after breaking away from the demonstration outside the mosque. The bodies of two people were covered with sheets, said a correspondent, adding another protester was shot in the head and fell, parts of his brain spilling from his skull. The Islamists accuse the military of conducting a brazen coup against Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, after millions called for his ouster on the June 30 anniversary of his first turbulent year in power. Continued on Page 10
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CAIRO: Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted president Mohamed Morsi shout religious and political slogans during a protest near Cairo University in the Egyptian capital yesterday. (Inset) A man lies dead after being shot by Egyptian troops near the Republican Guard headquarters yesterday. — AFP/AP
Gulf drive against Hezb may hit ordinary Shiites DUBAI: Gulf states are punishing Hezbollah for its role in Syria by expelling Lebanese expatriates linked to the group in a move that could victimise Shiites with no ties to the militants apart from their shared religious faith. Set up by Shiite power Iran in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon, the Islamist group has sent its guerrillas to fight alongside the army in Syria’s civil war, leading to defeats for rebels armed by some Gulf Arab states. The Sunni Muslim Gulf countries, led by regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have supported Syrian rebels with arms and money in a fight to topple President Bashar Al-Assad, an ally of Iran. Denouncing what it called Hezbollah’s interference in Syria, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) last month announced its six member states would revoke the residency visas of people associated with Hezbollah and target their financial and commercial dealings in the Gulf.
The expulsions illustrate how the war in Syria has encouraged age-old tensions between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims to spread across its borders and through the region. During a meeting of senior GCC security officials in Riyadh on Thursday, the undersecretary of Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, Major General Khaled Al-Absi, said the move against the group came after the “discovery of several Hezbollah terror cells in the Gulf states, their involvement in training of terror groups ... and their flagrant involvement in Syria”. “Unfortunately, some people will pay the price without being involved,” Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, an Emirati political scientist, said of the deportations. “But Hezbollah should be held responsible for this. Hezbollah left its national boundary and interfered in a purely Syrian matter with brazenness and stubbornness. This should not be left unheeded.” At least three Gulf states - Saudi Arabia, the UAE and
Qatar - have evicted scores of Lebanese since the GCC announced on June 2 they were considering punitive measures against the group, according to a Doha-based security source and Hassan Alayan, a Lebanese critic of the campaign. The security source said 17 or 18 Lebanese Shiites were expelled from Qatar in June while Gulf-based analysts following the matter suggested the number could be larger in the UAE. Alayan, a spokesman for Lebanese Shiites who have been evicted from the Gulf, said between 20 to 30 Lebanese Shiites were believed to have been expelled from Saudi Arabia in the past month alone. “I don’t know what’s their interest in expelling people who lived in their countries for decades and offered the best they could in service of these countries,” said Alayan, a Shiite who added that he had lived in the UAE for 27 years before being told in 2009 to leave. Continued on Page 10