Updates: Egypt And The New Cold War Between The U.S. And Russia

Egypt Army Deploys Forces Before Islamist Protests

Hundreds of people died and thousands were wounded on Wednesday when police cleared out two protest camps in Cairo set up to denounce the military's overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected president on July 3 and to demand his reinstatement.

Deeply polarized Egypt has been bracing for further confrontation expected after Friday prayers between members of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and the army-backed government.

The Brotherhood called for a nationwide march of millions to show anger at the ferocious security crackdown on Islamists.

After protesters torched a government building in Cairo on Thursday, the authorities said security forces would turn their guns on anyone who attacked the police or public institutions.

Wednesday's bloodshed was the third mass killing of Mursi's supporters since his ouster. The assault left his Muslim Brotherhood in disarray, but it said it would not retreat in its showdown with army commander General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"After the blows and arrests and killings that we are facing, emotions are too high to be guided by anyone," said Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad.

Protesting Islamists Clash With Egyptian Forces In Cairo

New Cold War Between Russia And U.S.

The Middle East has looked more like a game of chess between America and Russia, and this was manifested after the American invasion of Iraq, an important ally of Russian and China. It was renewed with the Arab Spring and the collapse of the old pro-American regimes and the rise of new powers. Both sides are keen to gain influential allies at the expense of the other and any innocent civilians in the way.

The new Russia under President Vladimir Putin is trying to re-establish its global presence, and sees the well touted Arab Spring as the perfect chance to do it. U.S. military bases are spread across the Arabian and Persian Gulfs, Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Pacific, while Russia, has only one orphan base in Syria on the Mediterranean. The ‘Syrian Free Army’, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, collaborates with the MI6 and CIA, and takes their instructions, weapons and fundingfrom NATO the U.S.  At the same time,  Russia and China are trying not to lose the only Russian military base in the region, or lose influence to maintain even a minimumlevel of its interests.

In Egypt, the largest country in the Middle East, with the Suez Canal joining the Mediterranean and Red seas, we find that the new game of chess moved in immediately after the fall of the US-backed Muslim Brotherhood.

It is generally known here that the Obama administration is filled with a large number of Muslim Brotherhood activists who are not too happy with the overthrow of the Brotherhood in Egypt.  This is the same brotherhood that was CIA funded and trained for years in order to implement US policies and agendas in the region—a reward for helping them take power in Egypt after many years of living in the dark, being stalked, imprisoned and banned.



Obama and his administration may have bet on the wrong horse,  which is exposing them to severe criticism both at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, the ravening Russian Bear is hungry and thus highly motivated. With the fall of the Brotherhood government, Russian hurriedly extended a helping hand to the new el Sisi-led Egyptian government.  Putin professed readiness to provide the same amount of aid to Egypt as compensation.  The Russian President even showed a strong desire to visit Egypt and the new government to bless the revolution and to provide assistance to the Egyptians in their crisis. This was Putin’s way to trump the blundering of Obama and his administration. Obama announced Thursday that he would cancel military exercises already planned with the Egyptian army, leaving the door open on a new opportunity for the hungry Russian bear to start military exerciseswith Egypt. 

An official spokesman for the Egyptian presidency announced that the presidency is considering the possibility of freezing diplomatic relations with the United States and closing their embassy in Cairo, as a punishment for its blatant interference in the inner affairs of Egypt, and its open support for terrorist groups that threaten the Egyptian national security.

El-Sissi Will Not Be Deterred

The war for Egypt’s future has returned to international headlines and the Muslim Brotherhood is now demanding that el-Sissi be removed from power in order to restore peace. It is highly unlikely, though, that this will happen any time soon. Right now, Egypt is headed towards the unknown.

There is little chance of the Muslim Brotherhood ending their protests any time soon, and the military has no intention of forgoing its venerated commander, el-Sissi. But as further confrontation looms, the Muslim Brotherhood is at a disadvantage. It has the support of less than half of the Egyptian population, and it must contend with a powerful army, led by revered officers, that enjoys majority backing. The odds are not in its favor. The Brotherhood will be able to continue to disrupt and interfere with developments in Egypt, but there is currently no third revolution or coup on the horizon.

Still, these events are occurring in the new Middle East, where it is nearly impossible to foresee what tomorrow will bring. Back on January 26, 2011, the day after the protests against Hosni Mubarak began, it was nearly impossible to predict that he would be overthrown in less than three weeks.

El-Sissi’s violent action against the protesters was no coincidence. It is simply the next phase of the strategy that the army has employed over the past six weeks, both for handling the internal Egyptian front and for its activity in Sinai and against Hamas. The Egyptian chief of staff seems to be following a policy of zero tolerance against anyone who attempts to undermine the sovereignty of the new regime or Egypt’s national security. The days of Mubarak’s trial-and-error policies and mixed messages are over.

The army has entered a new era of all-out war against Islamic forces in Sinai and against the tunnels connecting the peninsula to Gaza, while at the same time, it is exerting force against the Muslim Brotherhood inside Egypt. The problem is that there are limits to the force and violence that can be applied, as the situation in Syria underlines. The Syrian army has been unable to suppress the opposition against Bashar Assad even as the death toll exceeds 100,000. Unlike in Syria, though, large portions of the Egyptian population support the military’s harsh policies.

Even as violence continues throughout Egypt, the army continues its efforts to destroy Jihadist headquarters in Sinai. Egyptian armed forces attack from the air and the ground and have managed to hit dozens of targets in the last week alone. The problem is that the number of armed activists that identify with al-Qaeda’s ideology is estimated at 3,000. It will be a long time before the Egyptian army will be able to declare victory in Sinai. From the Israeli perspective, this means that the rockets fired at Eilat this week will not be the last.