{"id":651975,"date":"2017-02-26T04:11:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T04:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2017\/02\/26\/displacement-of-sinai-christians-tops-intl-coverage-of-egypt\/"},"modified":"2017-02-26T04:11:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T04:11:08","slug":"displacement-of-sinai-christians-tops-intl-coverage-of-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2017\/02\/26\/displacement-of-sinai-christians-tops-intl-coverage-of-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Displacement of Sinai Christians tops int\u2019l coverage of Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The displacement of dozens of Christian families in Sinai <\/strong>as a result of increasing threats from Daesh topped international coverage of Egypt over the weekend \u2014 which saw significant foreign media coverage of some of our top stories. Reports on the number of Coptic Egyptians fleeing Sinai (mostly from Al Arish) differ from the AP<\/a> and AFP<\/a>, with the latter citing 250 people and the former reporting 90 families have left and keeping a tally<\/a> of the number of Christians killed in Al Arish over the past month. Most of the reporting appears to heighten the sense of fear and lawlessness in Sinai, with conservative publication the Washington Examiner<\/a> going so far as to state that Christians were fleeing Egypt. Copts in the UK<\/a> are calling for more to be done: \u201cWhat we haven't seen done robustly across Egypt in all of these situations is people actually being brought to account and this gives rise to a sense of impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also driving the narrative on Egypt this morning: UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson pledging three new aid packages to Egypt<\/strong> that target the economy, education, and entrepreneurship, in addition to a USD 150 mn facility<\/strong><\/a> to Egypt despite calls to address human rights during his trip to Cairo. The Associated Press\u2019<\/a> pickup of Egypt doubling the price of entry visas <\/strong>for foreigners has also received widespread coverage.<\/p>\n

On the resurrection of the US-Egyptian partnership:<\/strong> Adel El Adewy pens an oped for The Hill<\/a> arguing that US President Donald Trump could bring in a new era in US-Egyptian relations after what he describes as the \u201ccontroversial and naive\u201d policy of the Obama administration to build relations with the Ikhwan. Ties can be improved by US backing for a large-scale debt relief program; increasing military assistance to the Egyptian Armed Forces and allowing them to purchase advanced weaponry; reinstating the Egyptian cash-flow-financing privilege to allow large-scale military purchases from American defense contractors; encouraging U.S. allies to invest in Egypt and boost its recovering economy; expediting the designation of the Ikhwan in Egypt as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

Talk of Egypt\u2019s \u201cdeep state\u201d plays out over US politics:<\/strong> As the dysfunction in the Trump administration plays out daily, the Chicago Tribune<\/a> picks up on the discourse on whether there is a \u201cdeep state\u201d in the US in a manner in which it says is present in Egypt and Turkey. The paper recalls talk back in 2013 of how former President Mohamed Morsi was plagued by endemic economic and structural failures that evaporated a week after he was toppled is indicative of a shadow government made up of state security and the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Other coverage of Egypt in the international press worth a skim:<\/p>\n