Erdogan stokes the flames in Egypt

[Jefferson23]

By Victor Kotsev

While it seems clear that Egypt is sliding towards anarchy, many questions remain about who is responsible for the drama at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo last Friday, an incident that very nearly turned into the lynching of six Israeli security guards and a diplomatic scandal on par with the hostage crisis at the United States Embassy in Iran in 1979.

To add to the suspense, the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Egypt, which began on Monday, is stirring a lot of speculation. Israel's main Muslim partners, now estranged, are ostensibly conspiring on their own. Yet this superficial impression, bolstered by Erdogan's angry anti-Israeli rhetoric, yields only additional question marks.

Turkey and Egypt are bitter rivals for influence in the Muslim world; if anything dramatic comes out of Erdogan's visit, it is more likely to be born in contention than in collusion.

Though both Israel and Egypt tried to downplay it, the incident on Friday very nearly turned into a disaster, and is likely to rattle their already strained relationship in a major way. Reports have it that Cairo had warned Jerusalem in advance about the danger of a mob attack. <1>

remainder: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MI14Ak01.html

[henank]

1. Asharq Alawsat has a similar article about Egyptian instability

but it blames the Egyptians themselves: setting Egypt on fire.

[bemildred]

2. Interesting.

Not usuallly a fan of Mr Kotsev, but he is fairly cogent here, and he points out the obvious, for example, that Egypt and Turkey are normally rivals, that Tantawi's job is basically to stall and obfuscate, and that the real "threat" in Egypt is chaos, i.e. the end of authoritarian rule.

[Jefferson23]

3. He is no Pepe Escobar, true. One OP recently

he wrote about the Long-term prospects for Turkey and Israel he talks about the Palmer report but does
not delve into the fact that Álvaro Uribe was suppose to be perceived as a credible member of the panel? How absurd!

He is not careful to examine the details, he kinda gets it but not..yet can make a few points clear.