Egypt Lashes Out At Arab ‘Axis Of Evil’

Egypt has launched a major information offensive against a number of Islamic countries and movements based on information provided by captured Hezbollah operatives. These include Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Qatar and Hamas.

The official Egyptian government daily newspaper, al-Ahram, devoted its main front-page headline Saturday to an unprecedented attack against the leaders of Iran, Syria, Qatar, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, Hamas, as well as the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera television network and Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.

Al-Ahram accused those countries and organizations, which have been dubbed by Egyptian commentators as the “Axis of Evil,” of collaboration with the “plot” to topple Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime from power by means of terror attacks inside Egypt.

The state newspaper accused Syria of trying to “rock the foundations of the regime.” It accused Hamas of giving extended assistance both to Hezbollah’s terror cells and to the network’s commander, Sami Shihab, who was smuggled into Egypt from Gaza. Qatar was condemned for inviting Iran, a non-Arab and non-member state, to the Arab League’s meeting.

Al-Jazeera was attacked for “incitement” and “providing hostile propaganda services to all the countries and bodies that were involved in the attempt to bring about the collapse of the Egyptian regime’s stability.”

The newspaper also cites the involvement of seven Israeli Arabs, who were arrested in the context of the affair. According to the report, the seven are Israeli citizens who have lived in Egypt for many years and were recruited to join Hezbollah’s terror cell.

An official Egyptian government spokesman in Cairo said on Saturday Egypt would not be prepared either to forgive Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah or to achieve reconciliation.

Mr. Mubarak rejected a meditation effort that was made by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berr, a veteran Lebanese politician from the Shiite community with close relations with Mr. Nasrallah.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com