by Daniel Pipes
May 20, 2011
updated May 24, 2011
Tantawi and the Saudi foreign minister.
I have predicted that the Egyptian military government will remain essentially unchanged even after the departure of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Here are developments that confirm or contradict that argument, starting with a quote from Muhannad Galal, a 27-year-old executive at the Cairo offices of Yahoo!: “We have the same mentality in place making decisions.” (May 20, 2011)
May 21, 2011 update: Egypt’s strongman, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi announced that Riyadh has pledged US$4 billion in aid to Egypt. Comments: (1) As one Egyptian puts it, these funds assure that “Egypt remains an ideological colony of Saudi Arabia.” (2) One can only guess how much money – perhaps more than this amount – is directed by the Saudi authorities toward Salafi groups in Egypt.
May 22, 2011 update: An Ethiopian commentator, Keffyalew Gebremedhin, notes that “the Mubarak regime is only decapitated but its unhealthy legacies have not been uprooted yet.”
May 24, 2011 update: Khaled Abu Toameh writes at “Egypt Run by a Military Dictatorship” that “Hosni Mubarak is gone, but dictatorship in Egypt is still alive and kicking. … In light of growing uncertainty and scenes of anarchy and lawlessness throughout Egypt, it is highly likely that General Mohammed Tantawi, head of the military council, and his colleagues will not cede power to a civilian and democratic regime.”
Source material can be found at this site.
