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Morsi’s amateurish policies ostracizing Egypt in region: Ashaal

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Press TV has invited Abdullah al-Ashaal, with the National Council for Human Rights from Cairo, to The Debate program to ask his opinion on the current state of affairs in Egypt.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Dr. al-Ashaal, it has been more than two years since the revolution and Egypt still seems to be longing for stability. What is the main impediment to Egypt attaining peace and stability right now?

Ashaal: Yes, I think that there is a conflict between the old regime and the new, nascent, regime. So the new regime wanted to expand and to hold the country, but the old regime is still holding, so you cannot combine both of them together.

At the same time, we have very weak performance of the new regime and many critics are addressed against them and this is why, I think, this [has] added to the burden of the new regime.

At the same time, it is the first time for Egypt to have an elected president and we need to establish this precedent and not to demolish it by the anger of the street.

So, how to solve the problem or this puzzle between the constitutional legitimacy and the broken political legitimacy? So, in this I think that something has to happen and to take place and the demonstrations which are planned to be on the 30th of this month, I think, would be a massage to President Morsi to see that the Egyptian people are changing and something wrong is taking place in his policy and this is very serious because it is not a matter of conflicting, but at the same time we have a conspiracy against Egypt, we have some elements who are conspiring against the stability of the country and who are trying to make failure an ultimate destiny for Egypt.

So, in this case we have, in fact, many elements in the situation and we can distinguish each of it, while the demonstrations are a right for the Egyptian and this is established now but the pacific (peaceful) demonstrations have to be established as a tradition, also, in Egypt.

Press TV: Ok, why do you think Mr. al-Ashaal, in general, it seems, it appears, what a lot of Morsi’s critics are saying is that what he originally started off saying, is turning out to be very differently.

Now in my intro I mentioned, for example the support for the Palestinian cause, but on the one hand we see that that has not really been the situation happening on the ground.

Why do we have these different perspectives, almost like a clash of perspectives, coming from the same person?

Ashaal: Yes, of course I am sure that the new Egypt is trying to support the Palestinians and they try to make the reconciliation a reality in the Palestinian life, but at the same time the capacities of new Egypt are not enough for making this hard job because as you know we have two poles, the first pole is Israel and the United States and the second pole is Egypt on the other side, and so both Israel and the United States are trying to expand the hole (gap) between the Palestinians and also to stop the resistance and to make a skirmish.

So, this is why the Egyptians find it very hard for them to bring both together on a certain strategy, since Israel is in fact between both of them. So this is why I think that the Muslim Brotherhood was supporting the Palestinians, but the Egyptians in general are also supporting the Palestinians.

So, one remaining element to that, whether Israel is a part of the calculation of the new regime or not; of course, whether it is aware of it or not, Israel is.

Press TV: Well, what about that Dr. al-Ashaal? What some of our viewers were saying and the last comment in particular, basically, asking about Morsi’s achievements, that you have a government that has continued ties with Israel and cut ties with Syria, deployed American troops in the Sinai, dividing the Egyptians and paralyzing the economy. Your take sir, on what our viewer has said?

Ashaal: Yes, I think that this decision was criticized widely in the Egyptian streets because, simply, it does not serve any Egyptian interest and at the same time it is making enmity with other allies or other alliances and I think this [is] untimely as well because it was very surprising to everybody here and at the same time it does not have an explanation at all, and this is one of the evidences that the foreign policies are conducted without any professionalism.

Egypt and Syria had been, all the time, allies against Israel and now the Syrian Army is induced in some other problems and this is why, I think, the only victorious party is Israel from the debacle in Syria and this is why Egypt had a chance to play a positive role when it was calling for the Egyptian initiative to combine all the four parties concerned. I think Egypt now is displacing itself out of the scene and it is in fact ostracizing itself in the region and this is very bad for any foreign policy.

This is why, I think, that the foreign policy had to have a vision first and it has also to be conducted by experts not by amateurs.

Press TV: Dr. al-Ashaal, your perspective? Is not it a matter of, as far as direction, because if this situation as Dr. [Saeed Sadek] said, that basically [Egypt] is dependent on the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the Saudis and the Qataris, so basically then what has really changed in these couple of years? Because before, Egypt was dependent on the IMF, was basically, getting their orders from Washington. So what has changed in these two years since the revolution?

Ashaal: In fact, I myself expected that the new Egypt is going to reorder its own situation inside and outside and to disengage from the old alliances, which had directed Egypt to the rift, but unfortunately nothing had happened and we are still [in] the same orbit. So, this is why nothing could change in Egypt without changing the joints of the situation inside and outside.

We thought that Egypt is going to move towards Iran and Turkey and to change the whole map of the region and the alliances and to get the Arab World behind it, but unfortunately I do not think that the regime was able to do that, it does not have a vision.

Simply the regime was replacing Mubarak in the same circles with one exception that the regime itself is not collaborating with Israel against the Palestinians, but it is trying to help the Palestinians without injuring Israel.

This equation, in fact, reflects the poor capacities of the new regime in foreign policy and also the modest collaboration that the revolutionaries wanted Egypt to do with the Arab World and to change the map itself.

So I think that for some time and under the same conditions, I do not think that Egypt is going to disengage from the same circles that Mubarak was flying over and it is very difficult for any regime to come without having a vision to do any change at all inside and outside.

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